Crocosmia ×crocosmiiflora (Lemoine) N.E.Br.
Montbretia
Stiff, leafy, clump-forming, rhizomatous, 60-90 cm high. Corm ± 3.5 × 1.5 cm, flattened; tunic fibrous, light brown, 3 or more successive corms at base of shoot. Leaves firm, ± erect to curving above, ± 2 cm wide, slightly < flowering scape, outer short and sheath-like at base of stem, with basal fan and a few cauline leaves, midvein ± conspicuous. Inflorescence 15-30 cm long, cymose, branches few, axis zigzag; spathe-valves reddish-purple-brown, ± 5 mm long at flowering, lengthening to 1 cm at fruiting. Flowers reddish-orange, ± 3 cm long, 4-5 cm diam., ± distant; tube narrow, 1 cm long; lobes spreading above, outer deeper coloured on back, subacute, inner obtuse, one wider than other two. Capsule ± 5 mm long, green, oblong-trigonous. Seeds c. 6 at maturity, ± 3 mm long, reddish-brown, compressed-triangular, surface minutely papillose.
N., S. Throughout. St. Oban. On roadsides and waste land, a garden escape well-naturalised.
(Artificial hybrid, Crocosmia aurea × pottsii made by M. Lemoine of Nancy; (see André Rev. Hort. 54, 1882, 124-125).
First record: Allan 1935: 3, as "C. aurea Planch."
First collection: "Puriri, Thames, alluvial land, H. Carse, late Jan. 1929, common on banks of streams in the Thames District" (CHR 3531).
FL. 1-2
This hybrid Crocosmia was commonly planted in gardens, and about cemeteries in earlier years, and some forms proved troublesome, spreading rapidly from corms and rhizomes. Disposal of surplus corms to roadsides and waste places has given rise to widely occurring, well established colonies in grassy situations, especially in some west coast, S. Id., localities.
Road construction and use of roadside soil as fill have been responsible for some extensive communities; corms are dispersed locally by graders, and by water in roadside drains.
