Ixia viridiflora, also known as Turquoise Ixia, is a tall member of the genus Ixia

Ixia

The genus Ixia consists of a number of cormous plants native to South Africa from the Iridaceae family and Ixioideae subfamily. Some of them are known as the corn lily. Some distinctive traits include: sword-like leaves, and long wiry stems with star-shaped flowers. It usually prefers well-drained...

. It comes from around the Tulbagh

Tulbagh

Tulbagh is a town in the Tulbagh valley and is situated in the Witzenberg Local Municipality, with the valley called "Die Land van Waveren" locally. Closest towns are Wolseley, Prince Alfred's Hamlet, Gouda and Ceres in the Boland district of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.The valley has...

 in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Cape Province

Cape Province

The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...

. It has small corm

Corm

A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ....

s under the ground.

This corn lily is a very rare plant. Its habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s are often destroyed by human influence so the conservation status of this interesting flower is vulnerable and is tending to worse.

The plant gets the name "Turquoise Ixia" from the really spectacular turquoise colour

Turquoise (color)

Turquoise or is a slightly blueish tone of light green. The color is based on the gem turquoise. The term comes from the French for Turkish.At right is displayed the X11 color named turquoise....

 of the flowers. They are grouped in long inflorescences and are traditionally star-shaped like in most corn lilies. They have a black centre with purple spice. The ovary is 3-locular. This flower is pollinated by specific scarab beetle

Scarabaeidae

The family Scarabaeidae as currently defined consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide. The species in this large family are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family is fairly unstable, with numerous competing theories, and new proposals appearing quite...

s known as monkey beetle

Monkey beetle

Monkey beetles are a group of scarab beetles, comprising the subfamily Rutelinae, and are placed within the tribe Hopliini. Many species visit flowers for pollen and nectar, or browse on the petals.-Overview:...

s of the tribe Hopliini.

The Turquoise Ixia has very good ornamental traits with its beautiful inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s but is very rare in cultivation because of its conservation status.