红花鸢尾 hong hua yuan wei

Rhizomes thick, 1--1.5 cm in diam., stout; nodes distinct. Leaves alternate on stems, grayish green, broadly sword-shaped, 40--60 × 2.5--5 cm. Flowering stems erect, 2--4-branched, 60--90 cm, leafy proximally; branches 15--20 cm; spathes several, 2.5--3.5 × 2--2.5 cm, 3- or 4-flowered. Flowers pale reddish purple, 7--8 cm in diam.; pedicel 2.5--4 cm. Perianth tube 1--1.5 cm; outer segments obovate, marked with dark lines and mottling proximally, crest orange-yellow; inner segments narrowly obovate, 4--5 cm, apex retuse. Stamens ca. 2.5 cm; anthers milky white. Ovary cylindric, ca. 3 cm, 3-angled. Style branches pale reddish purple, ca. 3 cm; terminal lobes fimbriate. Capsule ovoid-globose, reticulate veined. Seeds black-brown, pyriform, with white aril. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Jun--Aug. 2 n = 26.

Forest margins on hillsides, open groves, wet places. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [NW India].

Two of us (Noltie and Mathew) have seen no Chinese specimens of this species, which otherwise occurs in NW India (the type locality). Such a disjunct distribution seems unlikely, and it is possible that the Chinese plants represent an as yet undescribed taxon.