Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asparagales Link
Family
Iridaceae Juss.
 Subordinate Taxa
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Chasmanthe N.E.Br., Trans. Roy. Soc. South Africa 20: 272 (1932)
 Description

Summer-green perennial. Corm slightly flattened; tunic of thinly netted fibres. Leaves basal and cauline, distichous, closely imbricate, narrow-ensiform. Spike distichous, simple or occasionally branched. Flowers strongly zygomorphic, each within 2 membranous brownish spathe-valves usually < slenderest portion of perianth-tube; tube straight and very slender below, less than ⅓ of curved, broader-cylindrical upper part; lobes < tube, unequal, upper lobe ± hooded, much > other five lobes. Stamens ± = longest lobe and arched under it. Style-branches undivided. Capsule subglobose, < spathe-valves, many-seeded.

[From: Healy and Edgar (1980) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 3.]

 Biostatus
Exotic
Number of species in New Zealand within Chasmanthe N.E.Br.
CategoryNumber
Exotic: Fully Naturalised2
Total2
 Bibliography
Brown, N.E.; Davy, J.B. 1932: Contributions to a knowledge of the Transvaal Iridaceae. Part II. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 20(3): 261–280.
Mabberley, D.J. 2008: Mabberley's plant book, a portable dictionary of plants, their classification and uses. Edition 3. Cambridge University Press.