Watsonia meriana(L.) Mill.

bulbil bugle-lily

WFO wfo-0000787288 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Watsonia meriana, photographed by Saryu Mae 前 朝琉
fig. a Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-17 / obs. 176346368
Watsonia meriana, photographed by Elspeth Swan
fig. b Elspeth Swan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166094764
Watsonia meriana, photographed by linkie
fig. c linkie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165769760
Watsonia meriana, photographed by Eamonn Culhane
fig. d Eamonn Culhane, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175236528
Watsonia meriana, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. e Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163047288
Watsonia meriana, photographed by Jacques van der Merwe
fig. f Jacques van der Merwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 152670624
Watsonia meriana, photographed by Jenny Christianson
fig. g Jenny Christianson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148624313
Watsonia meriana, photographed by Jeremy Gilmore
fig. h Jeremy Gilmore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152430242

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 1 botanical country

Regions where Watsonia meriana is native: Cape Provinces Cape Provinces
Native distribution of Watsonia meriana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 24 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Antholyza fulgens Andrews
  • Antholyza meriana L.
  • Antholyza meriana var. minor L.
  • Gladiolus amoenus Salisb.
  • Gladiolus infundibuliformis Schrank
  • Gladiolus iridifolius Jacq.
  • Gladiolus merianus (L.) Thunb.
  • Gladiolus merianus (L.) Jacq.
  • Ixia iridifolia (Jacq.) Link
  • Ixia meriana (L.) Link
  • Neuberia pyramidalis Eckl.
  • Watsonia bulbillifera J.W.Mathews & L.Bolus
  • Watsonia fulgens (Andrews) Pers.
  • Watsonia fulgida Salisb.
  • Watsonia iridifolia (Jacq.) Ker Gawl.
  • Watsonia iridifolia var. fulgens (Andrews) Ker Gawl.
  • Watsonia leipoldtii L.Bolus
  • Watsonia meriana var. bulbillifera (J.W.Mathews & L.Bolus) D.A.Cooke
  • Watsonia meriana var. iridifolia (Jacq.) Baker
  • Watsonia meriana var. meriana
  • Watsonia meriana var. platypetala Baker
  • Watsonia stohriae L.Bolus
  • Watsonia vivipara J.W.Mathews & L.Bolus
  • Watsonia wordsworthiana J.W.Mathews & L.Bolus

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.