Prairie nymph

Description

Herbertia is a small genus of herbaceous, perennial and bulbous plants in the family Iridaceae. Herbaceous and perennial plants, from tunicate, ovoid bulbs with brown, dry, brittle and papery tunics. The stems are simple or branched. The leaves are few, with the basal ones larger than the others; the blade is pleated, linear-lanceolate. Herbertia consists of 8 accepted species. One of them is native to southeastern + south-central United States, while the others are distributed in South America. The genus is closely related to Alophia, Cypella, and Tigridia. The name of the genus is dedicated to William Herbert (1778–1847), a prominent British botanist and specialist in bulbous plants.