Freesia Pictures: Freesia manga

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

They are herbaceous vegetation which develop from a conical corm 1-2.5 cm diameter, which sends up a tuft of narrow leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm large bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of plants with six tepals. Many species have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped plants, although those previously positioned in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have level flowers. Freesias are being used as food crops by the larvae of some Lepidoptera varieties including Large Yellow Underwing.

CULTIVATION AND USES

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

Freesia laxa (formerly called Lapeirousia laxa or Anomatheca cruenta) is one of the other kinds of the genus which is commonly cultivated. Smaller than the scented freesia cultivars, it offers flat rather than cup-shaped blossoms. Extensive 'forcing' of this bulb occurs in Half Moon Bay in California where several growers chill the bulbs in proprietary solutions to satisfy chilly dormancy which results in formation of buds in just a predicted quantity of weeks - often 5 weeks at 55 ?F (13 ?C).

Herbaceous vegetation (in botanical use frequently simply natural herbs) are plant life that have no prolonged woody stem above earth. Herbaceous plants may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Total annual herbaceous plants expire completely by the end of the growing season or when they have flowered and fruited, plus they then expand again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial plant life may have stems that pass away at the end of the growing season, but parts of the plant survive under or near the bottom from season to season (for biennials, until the next growing season, when they rose and die). New development evolves from living tissue staying on or under the ground, including roots, a caudex (a thickened part of the stem at walk out) or numerous kinds of underground stems, such as lights, corms, stolons, rhizomes and tubers. Examples of herbaceous biennials include carrot, parsnip and common ragwort; herbaceous perennials include potato, peony, hosta, mint, most ferns & most grasses. By contrast, non-herbaceous perennial plant life are woody vegetation which have stems above ground that remain alive through the dormant season and expand shoots another time from the above-ground parts - these include trees and shrubs, shrubs and vines.