Taxonomic History
Dietes is probably the most primitive member of the Old World tribe Irideae. It shares characteristics of both Iris and the African genus Moraea and is most likely close to the ancestral stock that gave rise to these more specialized genera.
These plants were formerly placed in the genus Moraea, but were reclassified because they are rhizomatous. Like Moraea, they differ from Iris in having flowers with six free tepals that are not joined into a tube at their bases.
Some references mention the species Dietes vegeta or D. vegeta variegata, springing from some confusion with Moraea vegata (which grows from a corm, not a rhizome). The name D. vegeta is commonly misapplied to both D. grandiflora or D. iridioides.
The genus name is derived from the Greek words di-, meaning "two", and etes, meaning "affinities".
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