1265.000 Moraea Mill.

HOMERIA Vent.

Description of the genus

Perennial herbs, dying back each year, with corms. Foliage leaves 1-several. Inflorescence composed of rhipidia; rhipidia 1 per branch or crowded terminally, each enclosed in a pair of spathes. Flowers actinomorphic, Iris-like, usually blue or yellow. Ovary long-pedicellate. Style divided into 3 flat petaloid branches, these apically forked into 2 crests; stigma transverse and abaxial below base of crests. Anthers appressed to the style branches. Fruit a capsule.

Derivation of name: (originally Morea) named after Robert More, Esquire of Shropshire, botanist and natural historian, who was a contemporary of Miller and Linnaeus. The name was altered by Linnaeus into Moraea, presumably in honour of Linaeus's father-in-law Johan Moraeus,

Worldwide: 120 species in tropical and South Africa

Zambia: 11 taxa.

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Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsContent
bella HarmsN,C,EDescription, Image
brevifolia Goldblatt [End][LR-lc]N,WDescription, Image
carsonii BakerN,W,CDescription, Image
clavata R.C.Foster W,C
macrantha Baker EDescription, Image
natalensis BakerN,W,C,SDescription, Image
schimperi (Hochst.) Pic.Serm.N,W,C,EDescription, Image
stricta BakerN,EDescription, Image
textilis Baker W
ventricosa Baker N,W
verdickii De Wild.N,WDescription, Image

Other sources of information about Moraea:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Moraea
Flora of Burundi: Moraea
Flora of Malawi: Moraea
Flora of Mozambique: Moraea
Flora of Zimbabwe: Moraea

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Moraea
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Moraea
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Moraea
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Moraea
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Moraea
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Moraea
JSTOR Plant Science: Moraea
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Moraea
Plants of the World Online: Moraea
Tropicos: Moraea
Wikipedia: Moraea

Copyright: Mike Bingham, Annette Willemen, Nicholas Wightman, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Mark Hyde, 2011-25

Bingham, M.G., Willemen, A., Wightman, N., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. and Hyde, M.A. (2025). Flora of Zambia: Genus page: Moraea.
https://www.zambiaflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=380, retrieved 1 April 2025

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