Re: Iris variegata reginae

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This has been sent to both Iris-Species and Iris-Photos.

 

I have gone a few months without checking the Iris-Photos archive.  This morning I was interested to find an entry labeled I. variegata reginae.  Three beautiful photos of a charming iris were posted by Loic Tasquier.  He said that he had received the plant from Chuck Chapman of Canada.  He included a very interesting list of the several MTB cultivars that list reginae as a parent.

 

I grow a quite different clone as I. variegata reginae.  It is much narrower and 'wild' looking.  I purchased it from Terry Varner.  My question is whether these could be  two different clones of the species or whether one of them must be something else.

 

Some of the MTBs in Mr. Tasquier's list were from the lines of Terry Varner, so I imagine that the narrow clone is the iris used in those crosses.  If two such different clones are really both reginae, it seems to me that they should be identified by clone when they are used in hybridizing.  Bob Pries has long advocated that clones of a species that are offered commercially or used as parents of hybrids should be named and registered.  This case may provide a good example to support his argument.

 

The first picture is the plant that I obtained from Terry Varner.  The second is Loic Tasquier's photo of the plant he got from Chuck Chapman.

 

Regards,

Lowell Baumunk

Colorado