Freesia Pictures: Freesia refracta flowers

$Freesia refracta flowers$

Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering crops in the family Iridaceae, first described 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 native to the eastern area of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most species being found in Cape Provinces. Types of the former genus Anomatheca are now included in Freesia. The crops commonly known as "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped flowers, are cultivated hybrids of a number of Freesia varieties. Some other species are also grown as ornamental plant life.

They can be herbaceous crops which expand from a conical corm 1-2.5 cm diameter, which directs 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 bouquets with six tepals. Many types have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped bouquets, although those previously located in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have toned flowers. Freesias are used as food plant life by the larvae of some Lepidoptera varieties including Large Yellow Underwing.

CULTIVATION AND USES

The crops usually called "freesias" are derived from crosses manufactured in the 19th hundred years between F. refracta and F. leichtlinii. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these types and the pink- and yellow-flowered kinds of F. corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have flowers which range from white to yellowish, green, red and blue-mauve. They can be mostly cultivated properly 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 side products, shampoos, candles, etc.[citation needed], however, the flowers are mainly utilized in wedding bouquets. They could be planted in the land in USDA Hardiness Zones 9-10 (i.e. where the temperature does not fall season below about -7 ?C (20 ?F)), and in the springtime in Areas 4-8.

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

Herbaceous vegetation (in botanical use frequently simply herbal selections) are vegetation which may have no prolonged woody stem above earth. Herbaceous vegetation may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Total annual herbaceous plants pass away completely at the end of the growing season or when they have got flowered and fruited, and they then increase again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial plant life may have stems that pass away by the end of the growing season, but elements of the plant survive under or near the bottom from season to season (for biennials, until the next growing season, when they blossom and die). New expansion advances from living tissues remaining on or under the bottom, including roots, a caudex (a thickened portion of the stem at walk out) or numerous kinds of underground stems, such as light bulbs, 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. In comparison, non-herbaceous perennial plant life are woody crops which have stems above ground that stay alive through the dormant season and expand shoots the next season from the above-ground parts - included in these are trees and shrubs, shrubs and vines.