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Tigridia pavonia
Also called Peacock Flower, Tiger Flower
Tigridia pavonia is a bulbous perennial from Mexico and Central America, grown for its brilliant, short-lived three-petalled flowers that open each morning in summer. Plant the bulbs in full sun in well-drained soil and lift or mulch them where winters are cold.
Tigridia pavonia is a species of flowering plant in the iris family Iridaceae. Common names include jockey's cap lily, Mexican shellflower, peacock flower, jaguar flower, tiger iris, and tiger flower. The Aztecs of Mexico called the flower ocēlōxōchitl meaning "jaguar flower". The Inga and Kamëntšá peoples of Colombia refer to this flower as watsimba. This summer-flowering bulbous herbaceous perennial is widespread across much of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. It is naturalized in Ecuador and Peru.
The leaves are narrow and lance-shaped. The three-petalled blooms occur in a variety of colour combinations with strongly contrasting central markings. The three sepals are larger, to 7.5 cm (3.0 in) long, giving the flower a total width of 15 cm (5.9 in). They open early in the morning and close before dusk. Blooms are successional throughout summer.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tigridia pavonia 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.
