Barbary nut
Moraea sisyrinchium
Family · Iridaceae · Harmless
The wild iris that opens only from mid-afternoon and closes at dusk, and so goes unnoticed by anyone walking in the morning. A violet-blue flower with a white and yellow blotch on each petal.
Fields and pasture · Scrubland · Roadsides and waste ground · Montado
Also known asBarbary nut iris
How to tell it
Two narrow long channelled leaves rising from the base and often lying flat. Flowers three to four centimetres, violet-blue, with three larger outer segments marked by a white blotch with a yellow centre. Each flower lasts one afternoon. It grows from a bulb with fibrous tunics.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use to recommend
The bulbs were eaten roasted in times of famine in North Africa, and the Spanish name comes from pigs digging them up. It is not a plant to gather.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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