Commemorating F.H. Freese ( ? – 1876), a fellow-student of the botanist C. Ecklon.
Perennial herbs to 40 cm tall, dormant in summer. Corms conical with rounded base and soft fibrous tunics. Leaves basal, flat, with midvein. Stem wiry, simple or with 1-2 widely diverging branches. Spike one-sided with a horizontal axis. Spathes green, truncate, much shorter than tube. Perianth tube very narrow and curved below, abruptly widened into a cylindrical section. Stamens inserted in tube, loosely grouped on lower side of flower. Style branches 3, cylindrical, bifid; stigmas 6. Capsule papillose.
11 species in S Africa.
Plants small with fragrant tubular flowers in a horizontal spike.
Offsets; species by seed.
Goldblatt (1982).
Source: (2005). Iridaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.