Freesia Pictures: Freesia The Flowers Avenue

Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering crops in the family Iridaceae, first referred to as a genus in 1866 by Chr. Fr. Echlon (1795-1868) and called after German botanist and doctor Friedrich Freese (1794-1878). It really is indigenous to the eastern area of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most varieties being within Cape Provinces. Species of the previous genus Anomatheca are actually contained in Freesia. The plant life often called "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped blossoms, are cultivated hybrids of lots of Freesia kinds. Some other kinds are also cultivated as ornamental crops.

They are really herbaceous crops which expand from a conical corm 1-2.5 cm size, which transmits up a tuft of narrow leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of bouquets with six tepals. Many varieties have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped blossoms, although those previously put in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have chiseled flowers. Freesias are used as food crops by the larvae of some Lepidoptera varieties including Large Yellowish Underwing.

CULTIVATION AND USES

The plants usually called "freesias" are derived from crosses made in the 19th hundred years between F. refracta and F. leichtlinii. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these types and the green- and yellow-flowered types of F. corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have flowers ranging from white to yellow, red, red and blue-mauve. They can be mostly cultivated skillfully in the Netherlands by about 80 growers.[3] Freesias can be readily increased from seed. Due to their specific and pleasing scent, they are generally used in hand ointments, shampoos, candles, etc.[citation needed], however, the plants are mainly utilized in wedding bouquets. They could be planted in the show up in USDA Hardiness Areas 9-10 (i.e. where the temperature will not fall season below about -7 ?C (20 ?F)), and in the spring in Areas 4-8.

Freesia laxa (previously called Lapeirousia laxa or Anomatheca cruenta) is one of the other species of the genus which is often cultivated. Smaller than the scented freesia cultivars, it has flat alternatively than cup-shaped plants. Extensive 'forcing' of the bulb occurs in Half Moon Bay in California where several growers chill the bulbs in proprietary solutions to satisfy cold dormancy which results in formation of buds inside a predicted range of weeks - often 5 weeks at 55 ?F (13 ?C).

Herbaceous plants (in botanical use frequently simply herbs) are vegetation which may have no continual woody stem above earth. Herbaceous vegetation may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annual herbaceous plants die completely at the end of the growing season or when they have got flowered and fruited, and they then grow again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial crops may have stems that pass away by the end of the growing season, but elements of the plant make it through under or close to the bottom from season to season (for biennials, before next growing season, when they rose and die). New progress builds up from living tissue remaining on or under the bottom, including origins, a caudex (a thickened part of the stem at ground level) or various types of underground stems, such as light bulbs, corms, stolons, rhizomes and tubers. Types of herbaceous biennials include carrot, parsnip and common ragwort; herbaceous perennials include potato, peony, hosta, mint, most ferns & most grasses. In comparison, non-herbaceous perennial plants are woody plant life that have stems above earth that continue to be alive during the dormant season and increase shoots another calendar year from the above-ground parts - included in these are trees, shrubs and vines.