over easy [Bengal Tiger - striped]

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I'm curious too as to how the elements of this pattern are classed.  Is the striping related to plicata pattern (it is similar)?  As for the overall coloration, I would assume it is a variegata? 

 

The coloring of the original Iris variegata is usually striped and usually not solid colored.  The pale rim is usually there on I. variegata too.  ['Bengal Tiger' seems close to this pattern type?] In I. variegata those with solid-colored falls have the striping spread across the surface and fused, so the solid coloring is derived from the same pattern elements.  However, I notice that in a lot of modern variegatas (whick most seem to have solid-colored falls), as well as neglectas and amoenas, there is what appears to be a tendency (however faint), under certain conditions for the color to break apart into a luminata pattern (with the coloration concentrated between the veins instead of along them).  I'm guessing that all variegatas (and other light over dark colorings) do not derive their coloration from the same ancestry?

 

For me it is too bad that the "variegata" term is associated with the yellow over dark coloring, as apposed to the actual pattern of I. variegata, which aren't always the same things.  The word itself is actually more appropriate for the pattern (regardless of color) than for the yellow over dark coloration.  The type of pattern of I. variegata is found in other color classes such as bicolors, amoenas, and neglectas too.

 

Some of my favorite cultivars have a strongly striped falls pattern (usually courser stripes with fewer stripes than in 'Bengal Tiger', but still rather similar) often with little or no striping on the standards.  Since it isn't quite the same affect as the more average plicata pattern, I've always just refered to them in my notes as "striped". But, I've always assumed there is a close relation to the plicata pattern?  I'm not sure these striped flowers all have their striping rooted in the same genetics either?

 

Here is a sampling of diverse "striped" BB & TB cultivars, some quite like 'Bengal Tiger', some very different.  I think they probably represent derivations from a diversity of pattern types.  I have a hard time grouping any of them with typical plicatas, though I know a some truly are plicatas:

 

Butterfly Baby

Cinnamon Sun (faint striping)

Circus Circus

Circus Stripes

Color Carnival

Dazzling Gold

Dazzling Jewel

Irish Butter

King's Jester

Los Coyotes

Gay Stripes

Golden Zebra

Goldkist

Hold that Tiger

Marquita

Nichole Lassailly

Olive Orchid

Ovation (faint thin striping)

Pink Tiger

Puccini

Quandry (often faint, variable striping in two colors)

Scalawag

Striped Butterfly

Tropical Butterfly

Webspun (faint thin striping)

 

Dave