RE: animals eating iris

 

The Mule Deer come down from the mountain and eat all the flower stalks off of my Iris every year now (fourth year now since they discovered them).  I get almost no flowers now, and am not sure how to deal with the problem.  They don't just eat the Iris, but when the stalks are near to first flower, they seem to think they are candy, they don't just like them, they actively seek them out (even isolated ones hidden away get nailed).  There are no flowers this year - none at all.


In some late winters, the Cottontail Rabbits will eat all the leaves off as fast as they grow, but they move onto other plants as the Iris develop further and other things become available to eat.  They have only done some light nibbling this year, there are more native annuals growing than usual due to the relatively moist winter.

Mostly the Iris are not bothered otherwise (except by wind, drought, and poor nutrition), but in some years, again in late winter/early spring, the Salt Marsh Caterpillars have a population explosion and the overwintering caterpillars emerge to eat all of the leaves to the ground for a week or two and then disappear (funny, I've never actually see one IN a salt marsh!).  Pocket Gophers routinely dig up the clumps, but they seem to be after something else, as they never actually eat the plants themselves; still it sets them back and makes a big mess.

Dave Ferguson,
central New Mexico
in the middle of nowhere in sparse desert grassland.

To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
From: cholte@wi.rr.com
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:51:53 -0500
Subject: RE: [iris-species] animals eating iris

 

Hi,

I have seen where deer will take a big bite out of the only show Iris in my garden the night before a show and never ever come back.  They ever spit out the bite.  Turkeys seem to like the Iris.

 

Char

 

 

From: iris-species@yahoogroups.com [mailto:iris-species@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Diane Whitehead
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 12:07 AM
To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iris-species] animals eating iris

 

 

I read that iris were not palatable, or were actively toxic, to mammals.

I saw Iris douglasiana growing in huge clumps in pastures in
Oregon, because the cows wouldn't eat them.

Deer do not eat any of my iris.

However, someone with many different kinds of iris growing on a near-
by island with feral sheep reports that the sheep eat the leaves,
particularly in the spring.

I used to toss extra bearded iris in my goat pen and the goats would
eat the leaves.

So is it just some animals that won't eat iris, and is it a
preference, or are iris actually poisonous?

Diane Whitehead
Victoria B.C., Canada

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