Ixia maculata L. var. conica

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This appears to be a very common plant at the Cape, as every importation of bulbs from thence contains a considerable proportion of it, and some arrivals have consisted of little else.  Perhaps it may be the plant first described by Linnaeus in the Mantissa, by the name of Ixia maculata; but as that is said to differ from Ixia erecta only in having a stain at the basis of the corolla, we reserve this name for the species answering best to this description, especially as we cannot trace our plant in any one of the thirty-eight varieties of maculata figured in Hortus Schoenbrunnensis, among which several distinct species appear to us to have been blended.

Mr. Salisbury gave it the name of conica, from the above mentioned peculiar appearance of the flower when closed.

Professor Martin, as we judge by his calling the colour a deep red, did not understand the species this author was describing, being misled probably by the word miniata, as we confess ourselves to have been, when we proposed this as a doubtfull synonym of Ixia patens.

It was cultivated from Cape seeds, by Miller, in 1751 but his figure is full of botanical errors.’  [BM t.539/1801].  Introduced to Britain in 1757.  [JD].  

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [B.270/1843].  Probably the plant received per ‘Sovereign’ February 1831 under the name Sparaxis conica.  [MP A2948].  First recorded as Ixia conica in an Addendum to the 1843 catalogue.

Notes

For further discussion of Ixias see Ixia hybrid ‘Calypso’.