Hello Rob and Jeff,
I am actually growing a clon from Mallorca/Spain wich could fit the
descripion of I. sicula - in literature it is mentioned as an
introduced I. pallida.
The plant goes completly dormant in summer and bloomstalks grow
about 1.70m in height - Rhizomes are very fat - but comparing flowers
with photos of plants of I.sicula of Malta in internet they are much
paler.
This species is not native in Mallorca and not beeing a botanist I
have some problems give my plant a name, certainly it is something
from the pallida-group - just one nice form of its wide
distribution.
Hans
--- In iris-species@yahoogroups.com, Robt R Pries <rpries@...> wrote:
>
> Jeff;
>
> Currently the lumper botanists seem to have the most
> influence. Therefore Irises that may have been
> considered separate species are often dismissed as
> synonyms. unfortunately these synonyms often represent
> quite different plants and despite their relegation to
> a known species really represent rather distinct
> plants in the worlds flora. Very little has been
> written about Iris sicula. Your having other pallidas
> gives you a unique opportunity to grow them and
> provide us with some comparisons. I would love to see
> your comments printed in SIGNA. There is so much that
> is not written about even relatively common species we
> can not be too proud of our current state of
> knowledge. i wish you luck and hope that you can tell
> us more as your plants develop. Iris pallida itself
> has considerable variability in size and color. It is
> the Iris that provided the pink genes for modern
> tall-beardeds among many other traits. It seems we too
> often ignore the diversity of wild species being
> satisfied to let a single clone represent diverse
> populations.
>
> --- jeffinyucaipa <farmerjeff@...> wrote:
>
> > Today I received some species iris stock from the
> > British supplier
> > Rare Plants Nursery (http://rareplants.co.uk), which
> > is run by Paul
> > Christian out ot Wrexham, North Wales. Among them
> > are a specimen of
> > I. darwasica, one specimen of the a "true" albicans
> > and two specimens
> > of Iris sicula.
> >
> > The I. sicula is what I'm inquiring about.
> >
> > First off, I was intrigued by it because Mr.
> > Christian claims it to
> > be a distict species collected from the
> > Mediterranean isles of
> > Sicily, Malta, Lampedusa and Pantelleria, although
> > current schools of
> > classification list it as a type of I. pallida.
> >
> > Secondly, I already have a few well-established
> > specimens of I.
> > pallida in my iris bed: cv. odoratissima and cv.
> > 'Floridor' to
> > compare my sicula starts with. While I realize
> > they're not even
> > planted yet, both starts arrived with rather large
> > rhizomes attached -
> > 3.5" long by 2.25" wide by 1.5" high, and weigh
> > about 5 ouches
> > each. If this is a typical pallida specimen from
> > Rare Plants
> > Nursery, I'd like to know what just what Paul's been
> > feeding them?
> >
> > Neither of my decidedly healthy clumps of I. pallida
> > came as such
> > large starts, nor has the mature growth attained
> > such caudiciform-
> > like size as they matured.
> >
> > Has anyone else out there ever tried growing I.
> > sicula, or grown it
> > side-by-side with typical European pallidas?
> >
> > If so, have you noticed any differences between the
> > two?
> >
> > Do they get as large or larger for you than a
> > typical pallida, or do
> > they get as big as a garden-variety Tall-Bearded?
> > If my sicula
> > starts retain their proportions as they spread, I
> > might wish to give
> > them a bit more room to grow than the typical
> > species iris.
> >
> > Thanks for your help.
> >
> >
> > Jeff Myers
> > Yucaipa, California
> >
> >
>
