Patersonia: a beautiful native iris

         Patersonia (Purple flags) is an attractive plant with 'Iris-like' flowers. The plant consists of about 25 species and predominantly grows in Australia. The distribution extends to the Philippines, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Borneo, and Sumatera. Cooke (2006) described 18 Australian Patersonia species with the highest diversity (14) are found in south Western Australia.

         Patersonia occidentalis is one of the most commonly encountered species, a tufted perennial herb, which grows to 1.1 m high. Leaves sheathing is ensiform about 10–90 cm long and 2–10 mm wide. Scape is usually 15–110 cm long with elliptic to lanceolate spathe bracts. The flowers are blue to violet and held above the foliage for a stunning presentation that also interests native bees. The flower usually appears in the spring and carry through to early summer. Fascinatingly, each flower only opens for a single day or even less than one day in hot, sunny weather. Nevertheless, one scape can produce numerous flowers and a thrive plant will produce a large number over the period, creating the perfect ornament to the home garden.

         This plant can tolerate a dry condition, but it cannot withstand dry summer soils in heaths. Propagation is quite easy from seed which does not need any special pre-treatment. Another method by dividing large plants is also relatively successful. 

Patersonia occidentalis