1.
Libertia, Spreng.
Perennial herbs with a short creeping rhizome and long fibrous roots. Leaves numerous, densely crowded at the base of the stem, distichously imbricate, equitant, linear or ensiform, flat, rigid. Flowering-stems erect, simple or branched; cauline leaves few. Flowers on slender pedicels, clustered in the axils of sheathing bracts, forming a corymbose-paniculate or subumbellate inflorescence. Perianth regular, tube wanting; segments 6, spreading, free to the base, the 3 inner rather longer and broader.
Stamens 3; filaments free or slightly connate at the base;. anthers linear-sagittate, versatile. Ovary 3 - celled; ovules many in each cell; style short, with 3 linear - subulate spreading branches. Capsule broadly oblong or obovoid or globose, 3-valved. Seeds angled or compressed, smooth or foveolate.
A small genus of 8 or 10 species, found in New Zealand, Australia, and extratropical South America. One of the New Zealand species extends to Australia and Tasmania, the remaining two are endemic.
Leaves ⅙–⅓ in. broad. Flower-clusters many, panicled. Capsule ⅓–½ in. long. |
1.
L. ixioides. |
Leaves ½–⅓ in. Flower - clusters many, panicled. Capsule ½–¾ in. long. |
2.
L. grandiflora. |
Leaves 1/12–⅙ in. Flower - clusters solitary or rarely 2–3. Capsule globose, ⅕ in. diam. |
3.
L. pulchella. |
1. |
L. ixioides,
Spreng. Syst. i. 168. — Rhizome very short. Leaves numerous, densely tufted. 1–2 ft. long, ⅙–⅓ in. broad, narrow-linear, acuminate, rigid and coriaceous, striate; margins cartilaginous, smooth or very obscurely and minutely scabrid. Flowering-stem longer or shorter than the leaves, usually with 1 or 2 cauline leaves below the inflorescence. Panicle broad; branches alternate from the axils of membranous sheathing bracts, bearing subumbellate clusters of 2–10 rather large white flowers on long pedicels. Perianth variable in size, ½–1 in. diam.; the 3 outer seg- ments oblong or elliptic, often greenish on the outside; the 3 inner larger and broader, broadly oblong or orbicular, pure white. Capsule broadly oblong or obovoid, ⅓–½ in. long.—
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 307; R
aoul, Choix, 41;
Rook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 252;
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 274. L. restioides,
Klatt in Linncea, xxxi. (1861–62) 383. L. orbicularis,
Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 329. Sisyrinchium ixioides,
Forst. Prodr. n. 325;
A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 161. Moræa ixioides,
Thunb. Diss. Morœa, 8. Fer- raria ixioides,
Willd. Sp. Plant, iii. 582. Eenealmia ixioides,
Eer- Gawl. Gen. Irid. 27. Nematostigma ixioides,
A. Dietr. Sp. Plant. ii. 510.
Var:
a.—Bracts all lanceolate.
Var. b.—Upper bracts ovate, acute.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant from the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 2000 ft.
Tukaui. October–December.
A very variable plant. Var.
b appears to be rare in the North Island.
|
2. |
L. grandiflora,
Sweet Hort. Brit. ed. ii. 498.—Habit of
L. ixioides, but taller and stouter, 2–3 ft. high, with leaves ⅓–½ in. broad. Flowering-stem and bracts much as in
L. ixioides. Flowers rather larger, the inner perianth-segments much larger and broader than the outer, often 3 or 4 times as large. Capsule much, larger,.
½–¾ in. long, broadly oblong or obovoid, yellow when fully ripe.—.
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 274. L. macrocarpa,
Klatt in Linncsa, xsxi (1861–62) 384. Renealinia grandiflora,
R. Br. Prodr. Add. 592.
North and South Islands: From the North Cape to Otago, but not so common as
L. ixioides. October–November.
But for the great difference in the size of the capsule this might very well have been regarded as a variety of
L. ixioides. |
3. |
L. pulchella,
Spreng. Syst. i. 168.— Small, slender, 3–9 in. high. Rhizome often elongated, sometimes branched at the top. Leaves 2–6 in. long, 1/12–⅙ in. broad, grassy, hardly rigid, margins smooth or ciliolate. Scape usually longer than the leaves, bearing a single terminal subumbellate cluster of 3–8 small white flowers, or in large specimens 1 or 2 other clusters may be developed lower down the scape; pedicels very slender, pubescent, ¾–1 in. long; bracts numerous, whorled at the base of the clusters. Perianth ⅓–½ in. diam.; segments almost equal, oblong-obovate. Capsule ⅙–⅕ in. diam., globose, membranous.—
Benth. Fl. Austral. vi. 413. L. micrantha,
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 308; R
aoul, Choix, 41;
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 252;
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 274.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Damp mossy places in hilly forests throughout, not uncommon. Sea-level to 4000 ft. November–January, Also in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. |