Patersonia fragilis, commonly known as swamp iris or short purple-flag, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae family and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tufted perennial herb with linear, cylindrical leaves and pale violet to blue-violet flowers. Description Patersonia fragilis is a tufted or clump-forming perennial herb that typically grows to a height of . There are three to six narrowly linear leaves long and wide on each shoot. The leaves are biconvex to circular in cross-section, glabrous, pale green to glaucous, and often have a sharply-pointed tip. The flowering scape is long, striated and glabrous, with a smaller leaf clasping its base. The sheath enclosing the flowers is lance-shaped, long, green to pale brown. The petal-like sepals are pale violet to blue-violet, egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide with a thickened midvein and the stamens have filaments long joined for most of their length and the anthers are a similar length. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a cylindrical capsule long containing black seeds about long. Leaf colour and width and the characteristics of the flowers varies even in the one location. In some coastal areas, the flowering scape may be less than long. Taxonomy This species was first formally described in 1805 by Jacques Labillardière who gave it the name Genosiris fragilis in his Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen. In 1906, Paul Ascherson and Paul Graebner changed the name to Patersonia fragilis in their book, Synopsis der Mitteleuropaischen. The specific epithet (fragilis) means "brittle" or "fragile". Distribution and habitat Swamp iris is endemic to eastern Australia and occurs from Kangaroo Island in the south-east of South Australia, through southern Victoria, northern and eastern Tasmania, the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, and south-eastern Queensland. It grows in heath, including wet heathland and wallum heathland. Life cycle P. fragilis reproduces through bee pollination. Unlike the zygomorphic yellow flowers, according to the study by Faegri and van der Pijl, purple zygomorphic flowers less commonly attract bees. This problem is highlighted by the unique characteristic of yellow flowers that provides nectar guides, which outline a path for bees to squeeze through to obtain the nectar. Being a flowering plant, P. fragilis follows the same process of pollination and fertilisation in continuation of the life cycle of the plant. Ecology Through a recent botanical survey on the Nelson