Greek phormium – basket, referring to the use of the leaf fibres.
Perennial, clump-forming herb. Stems short, erect, unbranched. Leaves numerous, 2-ranked, linearlanceolate, leaf bases flattened. Flowers long-lived, tubular, upright along branches, bilaterally symmetrical, not twisting after flowering, stalked; individual flower stalks articulated. Inflorescence a terminal cymose panicle. Tepals 3+3, fused basally and overlapping to make a tube. Stamens 6, free, exceeding the tepals.ovary superior. Fruit an elongate, angular, capsule. Seeds ovoid, black, without arils.
Grown mostly for the sword-like, sometimes colourfully variegated architectural clumps of leaves.
2 species in New Zealand.Widely cultivated in southern Australia.
Used as fibre plants in New Zealand.
Large fan-shaped plants with one-sided panicles of upright curved tubular flowers.
Moore & Edgar (1970), Beckett (1992).
Source: (2005). Hemerocallidaceae. 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.
