Diplarrena

Diplarrena
Diplarrena moraea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Iridaceae
Subfamily:	Iridoideae
Tribe:	Sisyrinchieae
Genus:	Diplarrena Labill.
Type species
Diplarrena moraea Labillardière
Species
D. moraea D. latifolia

Diplarrena is a genus of 2 species in the family Iridaceae and native to south-eastern Australia. The name is from Greek diploos (double) and arren (male), as Diplarrena has only two functional stamens; all other Iridaceae have three. This name is often misspelled "Diplarrhena", an error that began with George Bentham's Flora Australiensis in 1873. The genus name is derived from the Greek words diploos, meaning "double", and arren, meaning "male".^[1]

They are tufted perennial herbs with a short rhizome. Leaves are basal, linear, flat and present all year. The stem is erect, with a few reduced leaves. Flowers appear one at a time from a green terminal spathe, iris-like but distinctly zygomorphic. There are six white tepals, and a style with 2 thread-like branches.

There are two species:

• D. moraea Labill., from Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales has leaves 5-10 mm wide. Flowers are 5-6 cm wide; outer tepals 15-25 mm wide, blunt at the tip and tapered at the base. Inner tepals are often tinged or veined with purple, yellowish at the tip.

• D. latifolia Benth. from Tasmania is a larger plant with leaves 10-22 mm wide, flowers 6-8 cm wide. Inner tepals are strongly purple-veined, yellow at tip; late spring to summer. It may be just a regional variant of D. moraea.

The cultivar 'Amethyst Fairy' is a large-flowered selection with darker markings on the inner tepals.

Diplarrena flowers in late spring to summer. It is propagated by seed or by dividing the clumps in winter.

References

1. ^ Manning, John; Goldblatt, Peter (2008). The Iris Family: Natural History & Classification. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. pp. 199–200. ISBN 0-88192-897-6. 

• USDA GRIN
• "Diplarrena". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government, Canberra. http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni?TAXON_NAME=DIPLARRENA. Retrieved 2008-02-08.