Libertia


Libertia is a genus of monocotyledenous plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1824. It is native to South America, Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand. Seven species are endemic to New Zealand.
Libertia is made up of herbaceous or evergreen perennials growing from short rhizomes, with simple, linear or narrowly lanceolate basal leaves which are often green but may be red, orange, or yellow under direct sunlight. The showy white or blue trimerous flowers are open in spring and are followed by capsules opening by three valves which contain the numerous seeds.
The genus was named after the Belgian botanist Marie-Anne Libert .
The species Libertia chilensis has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
; Species
; Selected formerly included
Numerous names have been coined using the name Libertia, referring to species that are now regarded as better suited to other genera .

Cytology

Libertia has a high rate of polyploidy, with 9/11 of assessed species confirmed as polyploid and only 2 confirmed as diploid. This is not unprecedented, with polyploidy being a common feature in the tribe Sisyrinchieae. The uniform base number of x=19 is, however, defining within the tribe. This base number is not found elsewhere in the tribe and only Diplarrhena and Solenomelus have uniform base numbers intragenerically.
All New Zealand endemic species of Libertia are hexaploid or dodecaploid, while these levels of ploidy have not been found outside New Zealand. Polyploidy is more prevalent in New Zealand species across all botanical taxa and this has been attributed as a relic of glacial refugia during glacial maximums.
DistributionSpeciesPloidy LevelChromosomal CountContention
South AmericanL. chilensis4x 76 Due to numerous issues with this study, authors found the sample, identified as Libertia ixioides but collected from Chile, to have 72 chromosomes present. This was most likely a misidentification of Libertia chilensis, with a further error in counting.
Samples from the Juan Fernandez Islands were found to have 114 chromosomes, in comparison to the 76 found on the mainland.
South AmericanL. colombianaNo data available.No data available.
New Zealand endemicL. cranwelliae12x228
New Zealand endemicL. edgariae6x114
South AmericanL. falcataNo data available.No data available.
New Zealand endemicL. flaccidifolia12x228
New Zealand endemicL. grandiflora6x114 The 228/230 chromosome specimen was likely Libertia flaccidifolia, before the 2009 naming by Blanchon and Weaver.
South AmericanL. insignisNo data available.No data available.
New Zealand endemicL. ixioides12x228 Due to the difficulty in counting chromosomes, authors found between 220-230 chromosomes in different counts, with 228 being the average count.
New Zealand endemicL. mooreae6x114
AustralianL. paniculata4x76
New Zealand endemicL. peregrinans6x114
Australasia-New ZealandL. pulchella2x38
South AmericanL. sessiliflora2x38
South AmericanL. tricoccaNo data available.No data available.
South AmericanL. umbellataNo data available.No data available.