Crocosmia Sky
by Rob Hemphill
Title
Crocosmia Sky
Artist
Rob Hemphill
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
A rare blue-sky, cloudless day in Ireland gives the opportunity for a soft blue backdrop for this impressive Crocosmia plant.
Crocosmia or montbretia is a small genus of flowering plants in the iris family, Iridaceae. It is native to the grasslands of southern and eastern Africa, ranging from South Africa to Sudan. One species is endemic to Madagascar.
They can be evergreen or deciduous perennials that grow from basal underground corms. The alternate leaves are cauline and ensiform (sword shaped). The blades are parallel-veined. The margin is entire. The corms form in vertical chains with the youngest at the top and oldest and largest buried most deeply in the soil. The roots of the lowermost corm in a chain are contractile roots and drag the corm deeper into the ground where conditions allow. The chains of corms are fragile and easily separated, a quality that has enabled some species to become invasive and difficult to control in the garden.
They have colourful inflorescences of 4 to 20 vivid red and orange subopposite flowers on a divaricately (horizontally) branched stem. The terminal inflorescence can have the form of a cyme or a raceme. These flower from early summer well into fall. The flowers are sessile on a flexuose arched spike. The fertile flowers are hermaphroditic. All stamens have an equal length. The style branches are apically forked. They are pollinated by insects, birds (hummingbirds) or by the wind. The dehiscent capsules are shorter than they are wide.
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Featured in the following FAA Groups:
"Square Art World" 01/01/2020
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Uploaded
December 27th, 2019
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Viewed 377 Times - Last Visitor from Cupertino, CA on 04/22/2024 at 8:27 AM
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