Description 

Moraea bicolor, commonly called African iris, comes from South Africa. It is a rhizomatous evergreen perennial that generally resembles beardless iris. It produces fan-shaped clumps of iris-like, narrow, sword-shaped, basal, evergreen leaves. Flowers appear on branched stalks. In frost-free areas, plants bloom from spring to fall and intermittently throughout winter. Flowers last one day, but are quickly replaced. Each flower (to 2” wide) has three light yellow tepals with dark brown blotches at the bases and three petal-like staminodes that lack blotches. Each flower stalk carries a large supply of buds. Flowering occurs in bloom bursts that often occur at 2-week intervals, hence the sometimes used common name of fortnight lily (though it is not a lily). Plants generally grow to 2’ tall. The fruit is an obovoid capsule. In the iris family, Iris is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and Moraea is native to certain frost-free areas of the Southern Hemisphere (five species from Africa and one species from Lord Howe Island east of Australia).