Patersonia sericea
Patersonia sericea, commonly known as purple flag or silky purple-flag is a species of plant in the iris family Iridaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a densely-tufted perennial herb with linear, sword-shaped leaves, broadly egg-shaped, bluish-violet tepals and an oval capsule.
Description
The purple flag is a densely-tufted perennial herb growing to a height of up to. It has linear, sword-shaped, grass-like green leaves long and wide. The flowering scape is long with the sheath enclosing the flowers egg-shaped to lance-shaped, dark brown to blackish, prominently veined and long. The outer tepals are bluish-violet, long and wide, the inner tepals about long and the stamen filaments long and joined for part of their length. Flowering mainly occurs from June to November, each flower open for one day, but each stem producing many flowers. The fruit is an oval capsule long.Taxonomy and naming
Patersonia sericea was first described in 1807 by Robert Brown in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, from specimens "...furnished us by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, of Hammersmith, West London who received the seeds, from which they raised it, from Port Jackson". The specific epithet is derived from the Latin word sericus meaning "silken", referring to the hairs at the base of the juvenile leaves.The names of two varieties of P. sericea are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
- Patersonia sericea var. longifolia C.Moore has leaves wide and mostly smooth with hairs on the edges turned inwards against the surface;
- Patersonia sericea R.Br. var. sericea has leaves wide, the edges lacking the reflexed hairs of var. longifolia.
Distribution and habitat
Purple flag grows in open forest and heath on the coast and ranges on soils derived from sandstone, from the Hunter River in New South Wales to the Genoa River in far north-eastern Victoria.Silky purple-flag is found in forest, woodland and heath on the coast and tablelands, and grows on soils derived from sandstone or granite, in south-eastern Queensland, eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria.