Watsonia

Family Iridaceae. Name: given in honor of the English botanist of the 18th century William Watson (W. Watson).

Description: about 60 species are known in South Africa. Herbaceous cormous-bulbous plants with a simple or branched stem. Very similar to Gladiolus. They differ from it by their undivided lobes of the stigma, a tube that is longer and very thin in the lower part, and nearly equal, pointed segments of the perianth. The flowers are sessile, small, in an apical spike simple or branched at the base, red, pink, white. Bracts are rigid, entire, often membranous.

An unusual plant, a relative of Gladiolus, and it should be treated the same as Gladiolus — planted in spring and dug up in the autumn. Before placing in winter storage, the corms are dried in a warm room. Leaves are sword-shaped, like those of Gladiolus, but the flowers look different — like little stars with a tubular base, arranged on both sides of the scape. Specialized catalogs offer several species of various heights — from 45 cm to 1.8 m, but most likely you will encounter for sale only two or three species of Watsonia, 1–1.5 m high.