The Genus Dierama
Dyer cites the following authorities for the description of Dierama: K. Koch in Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. App. 10 (1854); Bak. in FC. 6 86 (1896); in J. Roy. Hort. Soc. 54 : 193 (1929)
Dierama is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Members of the genus are evergreen geophytes growing from corms that often form chains underground in a manner similar to several other Iridaceae such as Crocosmia. The corms are relatively large, flattened ovoids in shape, with tough, fibrous tunics. A corm bears several leaves in an erect bunch; the leaves are linear, slender, evergreen, flat, fibrous and tough. The scapes are slender and wiry, branched, more or less bent at the apex by the weight of the inflorescences they bear; the resulting effect suggested some of the common names. Each inflorescence is in the form of a lax spike. The outer bract at the base of each flower is dry and papery, often lacerate near its apex, pale with brown streaks; the inner bract is similar but smaller.
The perianth is pendulous, campanulate and actinomorphic; tube short, infundibuliform; lobes enclose the stamens and style, sometimes with their tips recurved. The stamens are erect and placed symmetrically. The ovary is small and the style slender, with three short recurved branches. The fruit capsule is ovoid, somewhat shortened, and firm-walled. There are few seeds, hard, round, and shiny.
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