RE: I. versicolor

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Iris Species Group

I have followed the thread regarding Iris setosa / and potentially related species such as versicolor, with interest. For those interested in such things, here is a little bit of  additional perspective as I understand it.

The substantial connection of Species Iris with Edgar Anderson actually goes considerably further than Setosa. Anderson studied the origin of Lousiana Iris as well in developing his general population genetics and species origin theories. Now acclaimed as historically important work in plant science. One of his books "Introgressive Hybridization" involved extensive studies with the origin of Lousiana iris. Anderson and Fisher (another great scientist) were instrumental in literally developing the fledgling science of population genetics following establishment of Mendelian principles of genetic inheritance. R.A. Fisher, colleague and contemporary of Anderson, was one of the worlds great statisticians. Fisher shared an interest in population genetics with Anderson. It was Fisher who developed many statistical methods that permitted population genetics to be understood through mathematical modeling and statistical interpretation of massive amounts of plant data. Little wonder Anderson and Fisher were widely quoted in their day, as now. ( as Chuck noted ) These were two of the most influential plant geneticists of the last century - little celebrated in my opinion, but historically important none-the-less. It might be said that Anderson and Fisher were to population genetics what Watson and Crick later became to DNA when they discovered and described function of the universal code of life. In his quest Anderson used Iris species as model plants for his botanical investigations.

irisman646

gregdavis