Patersonia occidentalis
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| Purple flag | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Patersonia occidentalis in the ANBG | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Iridaceae |
| Genus: | Patersonia |
| Species: | P. occidentalis |
| Binomial name | |
| Patersonia occidentalis | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Patersonia occidentalis, commonly known as purple flag,[2] or long purple-flag,[3] is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae and is endemic to southern Australia. It is a tufted, rhizome-forming perennial with narrow, sharply-pointed, strap-like leaves, egg-shaped, bluish violet sepals and a cylindrical capsule. The Noongar name for the plant is komma.[4]
Patersonia occidentalis is a tufted, rhizome-forming perennial that typically grows to a height of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). It has four to ten sharply-pointed, glabrous, strap-like leaves 80–550 mm (3.1–21.7 in) long and 2–10 mm (0.079–0.394 in) wide. The flowering scape is 10–80 mm (0.39–3.15 in) long with the sheath enclosing the flowers elliptic to lance-shaped, brown and 30–50 mm (1.2–2.0 in) long. The sepals are bluish-violet, 20–35 mm (0.79–1.38 in) long and 12–22 mm (0.47–0.87 in) wide, the petals are lance-shaped and the stamen filaments are 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long and joined together. Flowering mainly occurs from September to December, each flower open for one day, but each stem producing many flowers. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule 18–25 mm (0.71–0.98 in) long.[5][6][7]
Taxonomy
Patersonia occidentalis was first formally described by the botanist Robert Brown in 1810 in his book Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae.[8][9] The specific epithet (occidentalis) means "western", referring to the distribution of this species compared to others in the genus Patersonia.[10]
The names of three varieties of P. occidentalis are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
- Patersonia occidentalis var. angustifolia Benth.[11] grows in winter-wet areas, swamps and along river banks in the Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren biogeographic regions of western Australia;[12]
- Patersonia occidentalis var. latifolia Benth.[13] grows in upland flats, slopes and valleys in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren biogeographic regions of Western Australia;[14]
- Patersonia occidentalis R.Br. var. occidentalis[15] is the most widely distributed variety, occurring in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.[5]