Re: setosa, hookeri, tridentata, var. canandensis and var. arctica

A little contribution from the north, I grew and bloomed tridentata for 4 or 5 years and thought of it as hardy but a few years ago it failed to appear. Whether it was the winter or something else I have no idea, but it is certainly semi-hardy. I received the clone from Ensminger who lived in Omaha at the time. I'd love to try again. Setosa has done that too I guess--disappeared for unknown reasons as do other plants I've grown.                                        Joan Cooper, Minnesota, Zone 4

Robt R Pries wrote:
On rereading your message I realized there was aloy left unanswered. Hookeri appears to be more of a coastal species than setosa. Northeastern Atlantic coast. It seems to be very tolerate of salt spray. But than again setosa in the Alaskan Aletian Islands seems to be tolerant also. There does not seem to be a gradient but distinct forms, Setosa Interior verses Alaskan coastal populations, Each Island in the Aleutians has somewhat distinct variations with differebt shaped/sized standards. I know of no one that has compared Russian/Siberian plants to American but it would be espected that there would be some differences. Tridentata seems to occur is brackish caostal backwaters in the South. There is no reason to assume that it would not be hardy further North but No one has this data. It seems to me there is much more that we don't know than what we know. As far as i know no one has crossed or tried to cross tridentata with setosa. given their chromosome numbers one would expect some of the offspring to be sterile.

tesilvers t*@yahoo.com wrote:
setosa, hookeri, tridentata, var. canandensis and var. arctica

Could someone shed some light on the current taxonomic view of these
irises? For instance, I seem to remember something about I.
tridentata once being considered a geographically isolated population
of setosa? And that the northeastern North American population of
setosa, used to be called I.setosa var. canadensis, but is now maybe
considered separate enough to be called I. hookeri. Does the
population of setosa form a continuum, (from Asia through western
North America to eastern North America) which grades from one type
into another? Or are there discrete blocks of the types? And what are
the distinguishing features of the types? For example, how would you
tell a tridentata from a hookeri from a setosa var arctica?

I'm mostly wondering how varied the setosa clan is and how
interfertile these various members are? And are they all 2n=38?




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