If you would like to support this site, please consider Donating.
Useful Tropical Plants

Lapeirousia odoratissima

Baker

Iridaceae

+ Synonyms

Lapeirousia congesta Rendle

Lapeirousia juttae Dinter

Lapeirousia stenoloba Vaupel

Psilosiphon odoratissimus Welw.

Common Name:

Lapeirousia odoratissima

General Information

Lapeirousia odoratissima is a perennial plant usually growing 10 - 18cm tall from an underground corm, with some plants up to 25cm tall[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
].
The corms are a valued food in Namibia, where the plant is commonly harvested from the wild for local use.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

308
Title
Flora Zambesiaca
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
,
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.

Range

Tropical Africa - DR Congo, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe.

Habitat

Sandy flats[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
]. Largely a plant of semiarid habitats, it also occurs in Brachystegia woodland and in exposed places in montane sites, as well as open grassland and Acacia savannah[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
].

Properties

Edibility Rating *  *  *
HabitCorm
Height0.15 m
PollinatorsHawkmoths
Cultivation StatusWild

Cultivation Details



The flowers open toward sunset, at which time they are creamy white. By morning the perianth has turned ivory to buff, and the tepals droop slightly below the horizontal; they wilt by the end of the day. The flowers are most intensely fragrant when they first open but maintain their scent through the following day. Ample nectar is produced in the perianth tube[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
].

Edible Uses

The corms are a valued food, eaten after roasting in hot ashes[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
]. Eaten for their water content[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
]. The corms are 15 - 20mm in diameter[
725
Title
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 77
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Missouri.
Year
1990
ISBN
0026-6493
Description
A botanical journal containing various articles, including a monograph of the tropical African species of Lapeirousia. It can be downloaded from the internet.
].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -
Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2024-10-12. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Lapeirousia+odoratissima>

Add a Comment:

If you have any useful information about this plant, please leave a comment. Comments have to be approved before they are shown here.