Wildflower series ~ Tritonia nelsonii

in #wildflowers5 years ago (edited)

tritonia nelsonii flowers.jpg

Tritonia or Flame Freesia are members of the Iris family and these little beauties are not spring flowers, they wait for the rain and are flowering all over at the moment, making eye-catching little patches of orange in among the rocks and grass. Rocky places are their preferred home although these can be grown in pots around the house

tritonia nelsonii.jpg

The name Tritonia means weather-vane and refers to the arrangement of the stamens, which are black and you can see them on the upper part of the flower in the top picture. The three little yellow spikes at the bottom of the flower entrance are interesting to see: I wonder if those act as a gate, preventing insects from going straight down into the flower and instead guiding them upwards to come in contact with the plant's reproductive parts, probably with their wings or upper bodies. They smell strongest at night so they are probably pollinated by moths, which fits with the fact that red or orange flowers are not primarily pollinated by bees.

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Wow, nice flowers friend

It is very amazing how these beautiful flowers with such a bright and rich color of petals can grow on stones.

Plants can survive anywhere it seems

I love orange flowers more than others color. They look really amazing for me. Thank you for sharing. I have enjoyed viewing your nice photos.

Thank you

We've only got yellow flowers, too, and they can't live without water.

Our plants don't survive the cold

Our irises are also afraid of the cold. They bloom only in summer and grow near water.

They are red/orange beauties :-)

Does it.smells nice? Can I use it as a gift to someone?

They are not strong flowers and would probably die soon after cutting so it's probably better to stick to roses

Ohh but I can apply some chemical on them to make them last longer. How about that?

Interesting that moths do the pollinating

Competition leads to diversification, that's the beauty of ecosystems

Very interesting tiny flowers! They certainly have very particular habit!

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