Walking Iris Plant

I've never heard of this kind of iris before.

Neomarica gracilis. Flowers every winter. My plant prop prof. that runs the greenhouse this came from said it was 'an insignificant bloom'. Just hard to catch open. It's already a little purple knob. Thats all thats left.

I would not call that bloom "insignificant" GT. It's beautiful.

Thanks GIlli. I do love it.

It's so great finding out about different plants. This is truly lovely.

Thanks Shirley. Really large to keep just for once a year flower, but I think it's worth it. The plant is about 4 ft tall.

It's fascinating! Well worth keeping. After all, many cacti flower less frequently than that, don't they?

Yes, I've some cactus I'm still waiting on. This is reliably every year. I just am not always home. A new plant will form roots just beneath the stem of the bloom, the mother leaf lies down like this when the blooming starts. Last year I had two blooming leaves and never caught one flower open.

A walking Iris!? I love it!! great plant, GT! the ones that seem to come and go in a blaze of glory are all the more valuable for that reason alone, don't you think? Where is this plant from? is it a tropical?

Central and South America. I love its moment of beauty. One of my treasures. It was used in shopping malls commonly in the beginning because you could fill up a large space with them quickly but lost popularity. I'd love to see it in nature.

shopping malls??? I thought only spathiphyllum grew in shopping malls! lol... (just kidding!) Did I catch it right...it is an epiphyte? and grows in moss?

It isn't an epiphyte, but the children can live of the parent plant without needing to root into medium. I read of the suggestion to plant them up in soil with bark and such to aereate it. I have it in a topsoil with more bits than others.

The malls used it in the 40 and 50's, in the malls beginnings.

interesting ...thanks GT.