Freesia occidentalis (live bulbs)

Freesia occidentalis (live bulbs)

Family: Iridaceae

Common names: Shy Kammetjie

It grows from 9 to 50 cm high and is found in the arid basin southwest of Calvinia to the eastern margins of the Cederberg and Swartruggens mountains east to Laingsburg (northwest Cape to the western Karoo). It grows in arid fynbos in stony, mainly sandstone soils or in low shrubland in dry loamy soils along foothills where renosterveld grades into succulent karoo, preferring south-facing slopes. It flowers mid August to September. Leaves are usually shorter than the flowering spike with the tips more blunt rather than sharp. Bracts are membraneous becoming dry and translucent or flushed pink. The fragrant (rosy violet with peppery overtones) flowers are in an inclined or horizontal spike and are creamy white to pale creamy yellow, sometimes flushed mauve or pink. The lowermost tepal and the inner margins of the lateral tepals are bright yellow and all three have a dark purplish midline

Locality: Karoopoort