Wild Florida Photo - Calydorea caelestina

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Calydorea caelestina

BARTRAM'S IXIA

Florida native

Endemic to Florida

Endangered Florida species

 

This rare perennial wildflower of grassy, wet to mesic flatwoods is found only in northeast Florida.
Appearing grass-like and nondescript when not in bloom, the stem is 20-40 cm (8-16 in.) tall. Basal leaves are few and narrow, shorter than the stem. Cauline leaves are less than 9 cm (3-1/2 in.) long and scattered on the stem. Flowers are blue-violet, up to 6.3 cm (2-1/2 in.) across. Each flower opens only once early in the morning mostly during the spring and early summer, then closes by mid-morning. Bartram's ixia will bloom at other times of the year, especially following a fire. The style body is white, clavate and branching towards the tip, with three purple, flattened, fan shaped stigma lobes. The three conspicuous stamens are yellow with elongated anthers. The fruit is a green capsule 2 cm (0.8 in.) long.
The six tepals are broader and less pointed than the fall-flowering ixia, or celestial lily. Celestial lilies are found south of Bartram's ixia, in the east-central peninsula and they bloom in the afternoon in late summer or fall.

 
Calydorea caelestina is a member of the Iridaceae - Iris family.
 

Florida Wildflowers in Their Natural Communities

  Walter Kingsley Taylor
Walter Taylor's guide will help readers recognize and identify wildflowers by where they're most likely to be found growing - their natural habitat.

This book is the first of its kind for Florida. Taylor provides detailed descriptions and color photos of each community - pine flatwoods, sandhills, upland pine forest, scrub, temperate hardwood forest, coastal uplands, subtropical pine forest, tropical hardwood hammock, and ruderal sites - and of the wildflower species associated with each.
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Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species

USDA Plant Profile for this species

Date record last modified:
Jun 29, 2010