Diplarrena
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Diplarrena Labill.
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A genus of 1 or 2 species in the family Iridaceae and native to south-eastern Australia. The name is from Greek diploos (double) and arren (male), as Diplarrena has only two functional stamens; all other Iridaceae have three. This name is often mis-spelled "Diplarrhena", an error that began with George Bentham's Flora Australiensis in 1873.
They are tufted perennial herbs with a short rhizome. Leaves are basal, linear, flat and present all year. The stem is erect, with a few reduced leaves. Flowers appear one at a time from a green terminal spathe, iris-like but distinctly zygomorphic. There are six white tepals, and a style with 2 thread-like branches.
Diplarrena moraea Labill., from Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales has leaves 5-10 mm wide. Flowers are 5-6 cm wide; outer tepals 15-25 mm wide, blunt at the tip and tapered at the base. Inner tepals are often tinged or veined with purple, yellowish at the tip.
Diplarrena latifolia Benth. from Tasmania is a larger plant with leaves 10-22 mm wide, flowers 6-8 cm wide. Inner tepals are strongly purple-veined, yellow at tip; late spring to summer. It may be just a regional variant of D. moraea.
The cultivar 'Amethyst Fairy' is a large-flowered selection with darker markings on the inner tepals.
Diplarrena flowers in late spring to summer. It is propagated by seed or by dividing the clumps in winter.
