Re: very tall Iris decora

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I have some seedlings from seeds collected in Nepal of plants that are either Iris decora or are very closely related (but certainly none of the other three recognized species in that subgenus). The first bloom on a seedling opened two days ago. It opened at the end of the morning and was starting to shrivel by the end of the afternoon - typical of this type of iris. The first photo shows the bloom. It is the right size for Iris decora and looks correct; the blue stripe on the center of the style arms is quite intriguing, though - I don't recall seeing it on blooms or photos of blooms before.

The second photo, however, shows the size of the plant. It is on the right side with a more typical Iris decora on the left. You can see that the leaves are about the same length, but the seedling has leaves fully three times wider than expected. If the Iris decora were in bloom, its flowers would about reach the top of the leaves. The seedling has a flower stalk twice as long as expected. I checked several references; the BIS Species Guide's entry for Iris decora does have a note about some extremely tall plants from Nepal that were grown at Kew. So my seedling is not the first anomaly.

Two more seedling are in bud...

Ken Walker
Concord, CA
USDA Zone 9