Re: tenax?

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    Like this attractive photo, pictures of Pacific Coast native iris are often taken from directly above – but they don’t show the stem, leaf and flower structures helpful in identifying a species. One needs to know how long is the floral tube? Do the spathes enclose the ovary or do they spread apart? http://www.pacificcoastiris.org/wildiris_three_main_groups.html .

    Flower color can be helpful, but not essential. Perhaps more than any other, Iris tenax reflects why the genus Iris got its name (“rainbow”). You can stand in one spot in an Oregon forest meadow and see tough-leaf iris plants with yellow, pale or dark lavender, purple, cream, white, even pink color flowers: http://www.pacificcoastiris.org/spcni_photojournals/pj_tenax_color_gamut.html .

    Putting a reliable name on garden-raised Pacifica iris strains can present a further challenge. How typical are they of the species? They were often originally collected in the wild because for some reason they stood out compared to the others. And with both wild and garden Pacifica iris, the possibility of an inter-species hybrid is always there.