African Iris

The African Iris are in bloom around the gardens, and they certainly are lovely! Though the flowers last only a day or so, the showy blooms draw the attention of passers-by, especially around the pond in front of BioWorks.

View Full Album

There’s a lot of confusion around the name of this plant, both common and botanical. In Florida, it’s commonly known as African Iris, due to its place of origin, but in other parts of the world it’s known as Fortnight Lily or Wild Iris. The botanical name of this plant is officially Dietes iridioides, but many people incorrectly refer to it as Dietes vegeta or Moraea iridioides, the confusion most likely stemming from its previous classifications.

Whatever you call it, this plant does well in both wet and dry soils, although it flowers best in wet. Here in Florida, we seem to get a burst of blooms in spring, and then sporadic blooms the rest of the year. African Iris is rhizomatic, so it should be divided every year or two to keep it in check. It also spreads by seeds, which form after the flower dies back. The seedpod stem often droops to the ground, giving the seeds a better chance of getting started. If you want to limit the amount of spreading, you can trim the seedpods from the stem when they appear. Residents of Southern California in particular appear to find the spread of this non-native plant to be invasive, though in Florida we don’t seem to have that problem.