Re: Rural South Russian Iris

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Yuri: This looks very much like the Iris we call Iris germanica. It seems to be everywhere here also. There are very slight variations of it which were discussed in SIGNA a few years ago by Nigel Service. It appears to be a sterile triploid and pods are rarely seen. Nigel insists that it does produce pods. Since the name Iris germanica is the type species for the genus it is ironic that its most common manifestation is this "sterile" plant. In order to distinguish it we often call it 'grandmothers old flags'. The plant called 'Amas' is supposedly a tetraploid Iris germanica but it is only produces very fertile pollen and no pods. Iris germanica is a real problem trying to understand how it should be classified. It certainly is the most successful species if one is looking at numbers. Iris florentina and Iris albicans are also triploid infertile species. Presumably all the variation seen in these plants is from sports, the most obviusly variations being a white form of germanica and a blue form of albicans. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to class this plant.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yuri Pirogov" <jukp@aha.ru>
To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 4:31:35 AM (GMT-0500) America/New_York
Subject: [iris-species] Rural South Russian Iris