Freesias are small plants with yellow, pink, white, or purple flowers that are shaped like tubes. a plant with pleasant-smelling yellow, white, pink, or purple flowers (F. H. T. Freese, 19th-century German doctor). Any of the approximately 20 species of South African plants that make up the genus Freesia, in the iris family, with corms, grassy foliage, and wiry spikes of bell-like, lemon-scented flowers in white, yellow, orange, and blue. The flower spikes usually turn at right angles from the stem, displaying the flowers in a horizontal line. Two species much used in hybridization are F. refracta, greenish-yellow to yellow or white, and F. armstrongii, tinged rose-purple. The plants are grown indoors in pots or in gardens in mild climates