Don't know if this will help you on your Iris hexagona questions but
here is a link to the University of South Carolina Herbarium website. It
includes a county distribution atlas for the flora of SE states. If a
plant is found in the atlas then it is almost a certainty specimens will
be kept in one more herbariums. I would imagine there is taxonomic
treatment information on the site to found as well.
http://herbarium.biol.sc.edu/scplantatlas.html
Any herbarium specimen will document it's collection date and site.
Whether plants are still there is another question. I would imagine the
herbarium staff can offer some guidance or perhaps direct you to
academics who are interested in regional iris species. Getting directed
to such an interested person would be ideal. Taking the tact of
inquiring on behalf of SIGNA may give you a little more clout but y'all
might coordinate this and decide which one person is the designee. I'm
sure they have policies about who can examine specimens or get
information about collection sites. Can't be assisting rare plant
poachers. So the academic contact might be a willing go between.
The University of North at Chapel Hill (my alma mater) has an excellent
herbarium as well that includes flora from NC and surrounding states.
Actually the SC Herbarium said it's distribution maps are based on The
Flora of the Carolinas published by UNC-CH. I had classes under two of
the authors. The herbarium site provides a download of a newer flora
manual: Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States by Alan S.
Weakley, which is noted to be updated to 2012.
http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/data.htm
Hope this help.
Oh - did whoever wrote Plants Delight ever get a response? If not I'll
write them since I know the owner, Tony Avent, personally. You want the
the provenance on their Iris hexagona right?
Shaub Dunkley
