Greek melas – black, sphaerula – small ball, referring to the small black bulbs.
Perennial herbs, dormant in summer. Corms with fibrous tunic. Basal leaves few or solitary, linear, channelled, trailing. Spathes herbaceous with dry pointed tips. Perianth segments free, in two different series, the outer broad and bent downwards, the inner shorter and spreading. Stamens joined at base. Style branches petaloid with crests above the stigma.
120 species in southern Africa.
Offsets or seed.
Small Iris-like flowers without a perianth tube; leaves 1 or few, long trailing.
Goldblatt (1986, 1998).
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.