In 2019, while visiting her parents in the Klein Karoo, Alouise Lynch discovered a scribbled note in a botanical book concerning Ixia leipoldtii, also known as the cornflower.
In spite of it being the first time that Alouise and Keir had heard about I. leipoldtii, which has a flower with milky white petals and mauve and a pink centre, they were determined to locate the plant, last seen in the mid-1990s.
“The challenge was on,’’ recalls Alouise. “We had to find it!’’
INITIAL DISCOVERIES
I. leipoldtii, a member of the iris family, was first discovered in 1935 on the farm Eikekraal in the Prince Albert district of the Klein Karoo by Louis Leipoldt, a famous Afrikaans poet.
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