Iris giganticaerulea |
Iris fernaldii |
|
---|---|---|
giant blue iris |
Fernald's iris |
|
Rhizomes | green, extensively branched, forming large clumps, 2–4 cm diam., with pale leaf scars. |
many-branched, producing dense clumps, compact, slender, ca. 0.6 cm diam., base covered with remains of old leaves; roots fibrous. |
Stems | 2–3-branched, solid, 10–15(–20+) dm. |
simple, solid, 2–4 dm. |
Leaves | basal 4–6, erect, blade bright green, ensiform, 10–13 dm × 2–3 cm, apex slightly curved; cauline with blade foliaceous, appearing as elongated spathe, 5–6.5 dm × 2–3 cm, not exceeding flowers. |
basal with blade gray-green, usually brilliantly colored basally, drying to unusual gray-green, veins fairly prominent, to 4 dm × 0.7–0.8 cm, often quite glaucous, margins not thickened; cauline 2–several, spreading, sheathing stem for about 1/2 length, foliaceous, blade not inflated. |
Inflorescence units | 2–3-flowered, branch units 1–2-flowered; spathes tightly enclosing ovary and pedicel, 15–20 cm, subequal; outer narrowly lanceolate, keeled, margins pale, narrow, inner margins translucent, broad, scarious. |
2-flowered; spathes opposite, connivent, often flushed red basally, broadly lanceolate, 5–9 cm × 6–11 mm, subequal. |
Flowers | perianth blue or blue-purple; floral tube tubular-prismatic, 9-ribbed and -grooved, 4–5 cm; sepals blue or blue-purple with white streaks surrounding signal, oval to orbicular-oval, 9.5–11 × 4–5 cm, base abruptly attenuate into claw, apex obtusely angled, signal with raised, yellow, pubescent central ridge, claw green, striate, 4–4.5 × 1–1.2 cm; petals erect or spreading-erect, spatulate, 7–8.5 × 2–3 cm, base cuneate, apex emarginate; ovary bluntly 6-angled, 4–4.5 cm; style blue-violet, keeled, 3.5–4 cm, raised above sepals, crests recurved, 1.5–2 cm, margins sharply and irregularly serrate; stigmas 2-lobed with 2 triangular teeth; pedicel columnar, 3.5–5 cm. |
perianth pale creamy yellow with gold or gray veins; floral tube funnelform, 3–6.2 cm, spreading apically to form wide throat; sepals horizontally spreading, claw with deep yellow median line, oblanceolate to spatulate, 4.5–7 × 1–2 cm, base gradually attenuate into broad claw; petals narrowly oblanceolate, 4.3–6 × 0.6–1.4 cm, base gradually attenuate into narrow claw; ovary elliptical, nearly circular in cross section, 1.5–2.3 cm; style 2.2–3 cm, crests divergent, linear to narrowly oblong, 1–1.7 cm; stigmas triangular, margins entire; pedicel 0.9–2.2 cm at anthesis. |
Capsules | drooping, bright green, ellipsoid, hexagonal in cross section, with 6 broad, rounded lobes, 8–10 × 3 cm, indehiscent; after anthesis, flower stem elongates, arching downward to push capsule into water, where walls are broken down and as funiculus is broken, seed rises to surface. |
oblong, roundly trigonal, distinctly beaked, 2.5–3.5 cm. |
Seeds | in 2 rows per locule, brown, D-shaped, 8–10 mm wide, very corky. |
dark brown, wrinkled. |
2n | = 44. |
= 40. |
Iris giganticaerulea |
Iris fernaldii |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Apr. | Flowering Apr–Jul. |
Habitat | Shallow water or very wet roadside ditches | Mixed evergreen forest |
Distribution |
AL; LA; MS
|
CA
|
Discussion | Iris fernaldii hybridizes with I. douglasiana, I. innominata, and I. macrosiphon. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 26. | FNA vol. 26, p. 387. |
Parent taxa | Iridaceae > Iris > subg. Limniris > sect. Limniris > ser. Hexagonae | Iridaceae > Iris > subg. Limniris > sect. Limniris > ser. Californicae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | I. elephantina, I. hexagona var. giganticaerulea, I. miraculosa | |
Name authority | Small: Addisonia 14: 5, plate 451. (1929) | R. C. Foster: Iridis Sp. Nov., 1. (1938) |
Web links |