Pseudacorus has a sharp vein in the middle of each leaf. Some other
iris have a less prominent vein, like JI, but I think this is the easy
way to pick out Pseudacorus.
Now would someone tell me an easy way to distinguish versacolor from
virginica? Or, are they so interbred in garden plantings that there is a
spectrum?
James Harrison
----- Original Message -----
From: h*@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 11:41
AM
Subject: [iris-species] Hi from New
Member who needs help! Distinguishing Pseudacorus from Versicolor?
Hi All,
I just joined because our neighborhood has an iris
"problem" I'm
hoping you all can help we with.
Last year a local
stream underwent a large restoration project to
reduce the effects of
erosion. The entire stream bed and banks were
regraded and various
natural barrier (boulders, etc.,) were put in to
direct the stream and
manage storm water. (Our City's storm water
system drains directly to
the stream.)
As part of this they created a "wetlands" area to spread
out storm
overflow and planted it with a number of native species. The
original plan included both Iris versicolor and pseudacorus. When I
alerted them to the fact that pseudacorus is not native and is in
fact an invasive, they removed it from the plans. This happened only
at the last minute and this spring it is evident that pseudacorus DID
get planted along with the versicolor - as their lovely yellow
flowers are in bloom right now. (They were planting 700 each of the
plants and I'm guessing some trays got mixed up.)
A local
watershed group is offering help in removing the
pseudacorus. At this
point they are only one year old and we want to
get them out before they
become any more firmly established.
My question:
Is there a
definitive way to distinguish pseudacorus from
versicolor? If not, we
will have to remove ALL the iris and wait a
few years while we check for
stray pseudacorus before we plant more
versicolor. This wetland
overflows to a stream that up until this
date has had no pseudacorus in
it. We have enough other invasive
plants - we don't need a new
one!
Thank you for any help you can give
me.
-Helen
