Re: Iris rudskyi

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Iris rudskyi along with several other kinds of Iris like Iris reginae have all been lumped under Iris variegata. Sometimes I believe this reflects some western chauvinism since we rarely lump all the pacific coast species into one. Of course some USA lumpers have done just that. The whole idea of lumping and splitting is difficult because in certain situations I would like to be a lumper and in other situations I would prefer to be a splitting and I am talking about the same subset of plants.

A helpful hint: when using the SIGNA checklists, always look up a species name both in the species list and in the cultivar list. Oftimes names that have been reduced to synonymy in the first will be explained in more detail in the latter.

Whether a name deserves species recognition is not so important to me as a gardener as it is to practically recognize differences in color and often in culture that are lost when there is no name attached to them. I cringe when I hear the definition of species as plants that reproduce themselves. I believe this has lead to many people thinking they have hybrids when they are simply looking at the normal variability within the plants. I find that when one is first learning species there is a tendency to create a picture in ones mind of what a particular species looks like. If you have seen only one example this is not difficult to do. But this leads to the notion that a single plant can be representative. We encourage this concept in botany by choosing a type specimen. Unfortunately types are not always typical, especially if only a few plants are known when the original diagnosis is written.

Since Iris Photos doesn't like anything but photos, I am moving the thread that started there to Iris species and here is a copy of  the last post there by James Harrison, I will reply in a second post.

 

Friends,

Macedonia was the southernmost province of the country formerly known
as
Yugoslavia, before it morphed and shrank to Serbia. Macedonia declared
itself an independent country with that name, but this did not please
Greece
at all for its northernmost region is also called Macedonia. It is
where
Alexander the Great grew up, and the Greeks have always considered
them,
well, literally marginal, but not so marginal as ot want to lose them.

Doesn't say much about the flower does it?

Looks like there are no fool proof ways to keep track of our children.
I use
maps too, but some die and others are vigorous thus taking more
space.than
anticipated and overflowing the intended boundary. My greatest
vulnerability
is keeping track of the seedlings once I have transplanted them into
individual containers, but before I have put them in the borders.  My
labels
fade and my colorcoded paperclips work on the individual pots ( I use
one
gallon cans recycled from the kitchen of a local nursing home which
ought to
be using more fresh vegatables.) but sometimes get lost when I post
them in
the ground beside the plants.

Re: lumpers and splitters. What is a species and what is a variety?
This is
a rhetorical question  But when we are talking about species, I vote
for the
lumpers, for unless there is a difference in the chromosomal count,
which I
cannot do, I am inclined to think we are dealing with one species.. In
all
the biological phenomenon I can think of (except gender difference
which
does not apply to iris since they are all hermaphroditic), it seems
that the
variance within most species is greater than the variance between the
ideal
type or the modal form of  two similar species.

I do still want to learn to differentiate between versicolor and
virginica
and have no cofidence that I have been able to do that among my plants
this
year.

I am also speculatively considering that the seed exchange as valuable
as it
is, may be contributing to some degree of genetic drift among
potentially
interfertile species, and how could it not with our busy little helper
bees?

James Harrison
Asheville, Z 7


David Ferguson <manzano57@msn.com> wrote:

So far, my few attempts at growing I. rudskyi have failed with the heat of summer, but I've seen nice ones growing in Colorado, and to me they look like nothing more than a selection of I. variegata.  I. rudskyi also looks a lot (in form) like a yellow version of I. reginae, which itself is a white variant of I. variegata.

 

As for culture, I failed at all attempts to grow 'Reginae' too, but this time I put it in a pot and in the shade of a Pfitzer Juniper, and it is growing quite happily for nearly two years now.  I'll try the same for other I. variegata in the future, which nearly all give me trouble when planted in the ground out in the sun.

 

Dave

central NM