Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Subfamily: Ixioideae
Tribe: Ixieae
Genus: Ixia
Species: I. maculata
Binomial name: Ixia maculate
There are many hybrids
Synonyms: Ixia fusco-citrina, Ixia hybrida, Ixia maculata L. var. fusco-citrina
Common name: Ixia, African corn lily
Ixia maculata is a species of flowering plant in the iris that is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It is grown widely as an ornamental plant. It is also found growing wild as an introduced species in several countries including New Zealand, where in some areas it is regarded as an environmental weed. It has escaped cultivation and has become naturalised in open woodlands, around old settlements, along roadsides, and in waste areas. It will spread into natural areas crowding out native plants.
It is an annually renewed corm that reproduces by cormels on stolons and by seed. The seeds can persist for up to 5 years. Dispersal is by water or soil movement.
Ixia maculata grows 20 to 70 centimetres tall with an erect, unbranched, long wiry stem. There are a few sword-like, twisting basal leaves up to 35 centimetres long. The inflorescence is a dense, showy spike of up to 12 star-shaped, flowers, usually orange to yellow or reddish pink colour. There are other colours and colour patterns due to hybridisation. Flowering occurs from August to October.
Growing on wasteland New Plymouth.
Pink form
Orange form
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
