Tiny Star
Perspective, Small Hand
Thread Iris
Bulbs
| Tiny Star Perspective, Small Hand | | Thread Iris Bulbs | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Asparagus (Asparagales) | ||||
| Family: | Iris (Iridaceae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Thread Iris (Moraea setifolia) | ||||
| This Photo: | Flowering | ||||
| Other names: | Paper Glasstulp or Two-leaved Cape Tulip | ||||
Thank you Alan Dandie & Karen Weaving for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Invasive throughout the region. Difficult to eradicate due to their thin leaf. Wombats like the bulbs and plough the soil searching for the them. This is not natural behaviour for them and is very destructive to the soil crust and natural order of things. Competes with native grasses. Has a single pale purple flower and two grass-like leaves (often one dries early leaving only one leaf). While it looks nothing like it many people think it's nut grass. Probably because the bulbs are like nuts and the few leaves are very grass like. The flower is a dead give away it's not grass. Kangaroos eat the dried leaves in summer. Possibly because other food is more scarce; or because it's weaker & easier to chew once it's died. It's leaves are incredibly strong & thin. When trying to pull out other weeds if you accidentally grab a Thread Iris leaf as well, you'll have no chance of getting either out. The green leaf is toxic to stock. Consumption of 1kg of green leaves will kill a cow within 24 hours. Wombats don't seem to be able to digest it very easily, so fill up on it and can starve to death if native grass food sources are not available. | |||||
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