Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Six coloured {tepals} spread above an {ovary} set below the flower rather than within it, and only three {stamens} stand inside — a count that quietly rules out most showy {monocots}. The blades rise in a single flat plane, each folded down its midline and straddling the one inside it, so the {equitant} fan presents the same face from either side. Its epithet was coined to say the flowers resembled those of a different genus — the very genus taxonomists later moved the plant into, leaving the name quietly circular. Dried flowers dropped into warm water give off an unmistakable smell of saffron, an observation preserved in the first half of the genus name. Lift a clump and the {corms} come away as a connected vertical stack, this season's riding on last season's, the chain parting easily between links. Both parents are South African grassland plants, yet this cross has never grown wild there: it was raised in a French nursery in 1880, and every wild colony since traces back to a garden. Flowering stems 3 to 4 feet (90 to 120 cm) tall arch over and kink from side to side, the buds set in two ranks along one face of the {secund} {spike}. Sword-shaped blades no wider than a finger are plainly ribbed, never thrown into the deep {plicate} folds of its broad-leaved cousins. Blooms 1.5 to 2 inches (4 to 5 cm) long open in sequence from the base of each branch upward, so one stem holds colour for two to three weeks. Hummingbirds work the flared tubes across its naturalised American range, standing in for the sunbirds that service its relatives back in Africa. Britain and New Zealand list the orange form as an invasive roadside escape spreading by chains of {cormlets}, while the flame-red border selection introduced from Bressingham Gardens in 1966 is the one gardeners actually mean when they say the name.

Accepted Answer

Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora 'Lucifer'

Name That Plant #092