Common name: Watsonia
Botanical name: Watsonia
An erect perennial herb forming large clumps; similar to gladiolus, with strap-like leaves, slender reddish flowering stems 0.5 to 2 m high, pink, orange or red flowers, underground corms and clusters of small corms (known as bulbils or cormils) on the stems. Leaves and flowering heads are produced annually. Corms and cormils start to grow in late autumn and foliage is produced during the winter. Flowering stems are produced in spring and flowering occurs mainly in November and December. Plants that develop from cormils do not flower in the first year but produce their first corm, and flower in their second or third years. Plants become dormant in late summer and autumn when the foliage and stems die off. The plant reproduces by replacement and multiplication of the underground corms and by cormils.