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Patersonia fragilis
Short purple-flag is a tufted perennial herb from eastern Australian heaths and wetlands, with violet flowers from August to December. It needs consistently moist soil and tolerates sun or light shade.
Patersonia fragilis, commonly known as swamp iris or short purple-flag, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tufted perennial herb with linear, cylindrical leaves and pale violet to blue-violet flowers.
Patersonia fragilis can be propagated from seed but requires a constantly damp soil similar to its natural habitat. It can survive with either full or light sunshade and can only tolerate dry conditions for less than a week.
Swamp iris is endemic to eastern Australia and occurs from Kangaroo Island in the south-east of South Australia, through southern Victoria, northern and eastern Tasmania, the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, and south-eastern Queensland. It grows in heath, including wet heathland and wallum heathland.
Patersonia argyrea · Patersonia babianoides · Patersonia borneensis · Patersonia drummondii · Leafy Purple Flag · Patersonia graminea · Patersonia inaequalis · Rush Leaved Patersonia · Woolly Patersonia · Patersonia limbata · Patersonia macrantha · Patersonia maxwellii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Patersonia fragilis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
