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Dietes Bicolor African Iris Fortnight Lily
Packet of 25+ freshly harvested seeds!
This attractive clumping ground cover is a common feature of most parks and gardens all over Australia.
It is incredibly drought tolerant and low maintenance, and makes a great border plant for rural garden beds due to its fire retardant properties.
Heaps of names for this fella, African iris, butterfly iris, dietes, false iris, fortnight lily, peacock flower, Spanish iris, South African butterfly iris, rain iris, wild yellow iris, yellow flowering wild iris, and yellow wild iris.
I found the following info online>>>
Infusions made from the inner part of the rhizome are taken orally in enemas to treat dysentery.(No idea how that would work? Oral enemas, now I’m no expert at these things, but if memory serves I am pretty sure that’s starting at the wrong end…) Rhizomes are used during childbirth and also for hypertension or ground into feed as a tonic for goats. They are also used as a medicine during first menstruation. Sometimes called the rain Iris as they believe that flowering of this plant precedes rain.(Not at our place! It’s always flowering, but we hardly ever get rain.)
In some African cultures they believe that if you have been to a funeral or entered a house with a corpse, you must chew the rhizome and spit on the ground to take the bad luck away. And if you do not chew the rhizome, an immediate member of your family is going to die.
Interesting stuff but nothing I would recommend trying yourself.
It isn’t classed as a prohibited weed anywhere, but it is worth keeping them in check as they self-seed freely and in NSW they have been found growing feral in a couple places.
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no dramas!!!
