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Dennis, Hate to ask this but are you sure you have true brevicaulis? What you describe sounds like what i see frequently with Iris schrevei. Iris brevicaluis in central Illinois is a woodland or woodland edge species that runs!!!! I have been growing it for 20 years, all documented wild collected material form central Illinois. The rhizomes are thin even when they are very healthy. For me seed set seems related to moisture available during flowering. A couple of good soakings during flowering helps. I always got better seed set when I grew them in the grape arbor in shade than when they are grown in sun. I have been under the opinion that this species may be pollinated by ants, with the flowers just off the ground like they are on brevicaulis. I have observed ants on the flowers. Could your plants be hybrids??? I would be willing to trade if you are interested. Stan Tyson Rivendell Botanic Garden Central Illinois zone 5 Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 6:57 AM ________________________________________________________________________
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:09:30 -0400
From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>
Subject: I. brevicaulis won't set seed
I'm cross-posting this message, so some of you might see it twice. But I
have a perplexing problem that I think both of these Yahoogroups can help
me with.
A local nursery specializes in distributing seed of locally collected &
propagated wild flowers. They have two enormous patches of Iris
brevicaulis that must contain upwards of 1,000+ plants. This spring the
bloom was gl
orious, but by September there was only ONE seed pod to be found.
Now the wild population still exists, but is substantially smaller than
what the nursery cultivates. The wild population set abundant seed! So
certainly the problem the nursery faces couldn't be related to rain fall,
or weather, or temperatures.
Do you have any idea what could cause such a pathetic result? Perhaps
overcrowding? (They are indeed quite overcrowded! If you try digging up a
single rhizome you'll get a whole mat of them crisscrossed together 2 or 3
layers deep.) Herbicides? They do not fertilize, so it couldn't be
overfertilization. Could it be soil type? I don't know. I am totally
baffled. I can't comprehend how so many hundreds (thousands?) of plants
could manage to only produce ONE seed pod! Do any critters specialize in
eating iris pods??? mice? deer? bugs? beetles?
They get full sun at the nursery. They are irrigated weekly. Could
chemicals in the water be to blame? A soil deficiency? These plants
increase vegetatively without any problem, and show no sign of stress,
other than the occasional bout of rust. They seem perfectly healthy I just
can't figure why they refuse to go to seed. Neither can the nursery staff.
Dennis in Cincinnati
PS: I have an article in the upcoming SIGNA issue about these I. brevicaulis.
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