Dianella nigra

Features

Loose tussock forming evergreen perennial herb, forming dense to open, diffuse clumps; rhizomes horizontally 150 mm (or more) long, strong and well developed. Leaves 250-800 x 12-18 mm, uniformly green to dark green, with distinct dark marginal bands 2-4 mm wide, discolorous, upright to strongly curved and distinctly drooping, more or less flat, lamina smooth and more or less glossy; margin and midrib of the leaf undersides smooth to scabrid, teeth often prominent; apex acute, leaf sheaths equitant, tightly clasping, surface light green to dark green with a reddish margin; apex acute to subacute. Inflorescence erect to spreading, up to 1 m long, exserted above the leaves; scape slender, arching, base asymmetric and up to 100 x 75 mm diameter; panicle 300-500 mm long, branches spreading, short, regularly spaced; cauline leaves subtending branches, leaf-like at the base but reducing in size and becoming bract-like distally; cymules 3-7-flowered; pedicels 10-17 mm long, slightly recurved, terete; bracteoles 1.0-1.2 x c.0.2 mm, narrow triangular, subtending pedicels caducous. Flowers nodding, 9-11 mm diameter, opening early morning, collapsing late afternoon, perianth segments strongly recurved at anthesis; sepals 4.4-4.5 x 1.6-1.7 mm, oblong, undersides olive-green flushed red-brown, upper surface paler, apex obtuse; petals 3.5-4.0 x 2.3-3.4 mm, obovate, white, midvein olive-green, apex obtuse to retuse; filaments 6, 1.3-1.4 mm long, white; anthers 1.3-1.4 x c.0.4 mm, yellow-brown, struma 1.2-1.4 x c.0.6 mm, obovate, yellow, minutely papillose; ovary 1.4-1.6 x 1.1-1.3 mm, green, more or less globular; style 1.7-2.1 mm long, white. Berry 8-20 x 7-10 mm, ovoid to oblong, grey-white and dull to strongly violet-blue and glossy, pericarp spongy. Seeds 1.8-2.1 x 2.3-3.0 mm, ovoid, black, shiny.