Dave Fenwick submitted this picture as an unknown Ixia species. Dirk Wallace (Victoria, Australia) noted that it resembled one he received as Sparaxis grandiflora White.

Dave checked again and wrote:
On just examining the corms they appear to have no apparent tunics; and are relatively spherical. Tritonia can be ruled out as I've checked the monograph. I've also checked out Suttons Seeds catalogues for Ixia dating back to 1870 , nothing resembling it.

The leaves are very Ixia like and the bracts behind the flowers resemble Ixia, standing 16 inches high (40cm); scape arises from the leaves at a height of 12 inches (30cm).

Flowers are pendulous, and arise off either a single or branched stem, between 10 and 15cm in length.

Lauw de Jager (Fourques, France) then commented:
It is the same as grown here under the name of Sparaxis bulbifera (code HB) It is certainly not an ixia (you wrote: Flowers are pendulous, and arise off either a single or branched stem, between 10 and 15cm in length) At the end of its cycle many bulblets appear on the stems, and it appears to be a hyrid form of S bulbifera. The bulbs originally came here as a gift from the famous Hanbury gardens in Italy.

Dave Fenwick (29 Apr 2000)
Plymouth, UK