Freesia Eckl. ex Klatt

Overview

Freesia belongs to the iris family, Iridaceae; Kew gives its native range as Kenya to southern Africa. The RHS notes that freesias come from South Africa, with bright, strongly scented flowers, and because they need conditions like their native habitat, they are more often bought as cut flowers than grown from corms.

On this site the cut-flower freesia is identified as the hybrid Freesia × kewensis, which WCVP accepts; WCVP records F. refracta and F. leichtlinii as native to the Cape Provinces.

Classification and characters

Klatt published the name in 1866 (cited by WCVP as Eckl. ex Klatt). WCVP includes Anomatheca, so the genus holds both the scented cut-flower species and small plants once called Anomatheca or Lapeirousia. The plate above, from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, plate 606 (1802), is named in the text as Lapeyrousia juncea, a synonym of Freesia verrucosa in WCVP.

Flora of Tropical East Africa describes perennials with corms in fibrous tunics, a spike usually flexed at the base, and bilaterally symmetrical flowers in shades of pink to red, or whitish.

Distribution

WCVP records the genus as native to 15 TDWG botanical regions and introduced in 25 more.

Cape ProvincesDR CongoEswatiniFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesRwandaTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe

Introduced

Argentina NortheastBalearesBermudaCaliforniaCanary Is.CorseEast Aegean Is.FloridaFranceGreeceItalyJapanKritiMadeiraMauritiusNew South WalesNorfolk Is.PortugalRéunionSardegnaSiciliaSpainSt.HelenaTunisiaTürkiye

Accepted species

WCVP accepts 17 species; names with × are natural hybrids. The count changes with revisions; checked 2026-10-24.

Historic plates

Plates in date order; the printed names are kept as they appear, current names are on the species pages and the topic page.

• 

  Lapeyrousia juncea

  Curtis's Botanical Magazine · 606 · 1802
  Sydenham Edwards
• 

  Lapeirousia grandiflora

  Curtis's Botanical Magazine · 6924 · 1887
  Matilda Smith, John Nugent Fitch

Growing and cut-flower handling

The RHS notes that freesias are sold as corms, prepared or unprepared; prepared corms are heat-treated to flower earlier but flower only once. Planted in containers from August to December, they flower from January to April; keep them cool at first, then move them to a cool greenhouse or conservatory. They make long-lasting cut flowers.

Floralife advises choosing stems with the first bud almost fully developed but not open and the remaining buds showing colour; stems cut too green may not open all their buds. Store at 1–3 °C and 75–85% relative humidity; vase life is 4–12 days. Freesias are sensitive to desiccation and do not tolerate dry shipping and storage; they are fluoride-sensitive, which burns the leaf tips, so avoid fluoridated and softened water; they are moderately ethylene-sensitive, which causes bud drop and transparent petals; and the leaves yellow easily, which a bulb flower food helps.

Further reading

• Flower guide
• Reference library

References

1. WCVP · World Checklist of Vascular Plants (via ChecklistBank dataset 2232) · accessed 2026-10-24
2. Kew (POWO data on the ColPlanta site) · Freesia, with genus descriptions from Flora of Tropical East Africa and Flora Zambesiaca
3. RHS · How to grow freesias
4. Floralife · Freesia care and handling