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PRE — Plant Risk Evaluator

Aristea ecklonii

Flowers and leaves of Aristea eckloniii by Ron Vanderhoff
Common Name(s)
Blue corn lily
Synonym(s)
Aristea cyanea, Aristea dichotoma, Aristea lastii, Aristea maitlandii, Aristea paniculata, ARistea stipitata

Is this plant a cultivar?  No

Life History:  Perennial

Growth Form:  forb

Aristea ecklonii is native to central and southern Africa.

A rhizomatous perennial in the family Iridaceae. Plants grow to circa 50 cm with broad, sword-shaped, conspicuously parallel-veined leaves and blue flowers. Inflorescence stems are usually 2-winged and paniculate, producing flowers in summer months. Flower clusters are subtended by short, narrow green-to-brown bracts; flowers consist of six pale- to deep blue tepals and stamens with yellow anthers. Fruit is an oblong, 3-lobed capsule that can be over 2 cm long. Plants grow in wet- to moist grasslands and forest margins in their native range and favor acidic to neutral soil pH. 2N = 64.

Aristea ecklonii is listed by Dave's Gardens (https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54124) as an onamental that can be propagated by seed and by rhizome and that grows in USDA hardiness zones 9ab and 10ab.. 

External Resources
https://www.gbif.org/species/2744906
https://www.tropicos.org/name/16600929
https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000787961
https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/taxon/taxonomydetail?id=4026
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Images

Flowers and leaves of Aristea eckloniii
by Ron Vanderhoff
image info

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