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Threats and weeds

African Flag

Chasmanthe floribunda
Garden escape

An orange-flowered bulb escaped from gardens into the bush.

African Flag, Chasmanthe floribunda, at Skye Sanctuary

How to identify it

  • Strappy, upright, iris-like leaves in a fan.
  • Arching spikes of tubular orange flowers in late winter and spring.
  • Grows from a corm (a bulb-like underground stem).

Why it is a problem

A garden escape that forms dense clumps in bushland, spreading by corms and seed and displacing native ground flora.

How to control it

Dig out the corms carefully and bag them; leaving cormlets behind regrows the clump. Spot spray dense stands in active growth. Follow up over several seasons.

Where it is at Skye

Recorded on the slope in the September survey.

Often confused with Montbretia; corrected to African Flag on iNaturalist.

Status at Skye

Garden-escape weed on Mount Skye.

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