HYB: winter deciduous, ancestry - long, boring

Another Subject Line for this post might be "Reinventing the wheel"

The posts about aphylla got me started making family trees of the few
winter deciduous TBs we have been able to find.  I was looking to see if
they would all trace back to aphylla somewhere, and quickly ran into a
dead end.  The World of Iris only mentions BLACK FOREST and THE BLUE BOY
explicitly as having aphylla genes.  

There were several ancestors in common in the first group I traced, but
they made no sense to me - WHOLE CLOTH was one, MAY HALL was another
(those of you who have been at this a long time may now go 'ahah!',
especially Lloyd).  

So I wrote a note to Clarence Mahan (who has been so tolerant of my
incessant questions - thank you again Clarence) asking if he knew of any
other ancestral TBs suspected to have aphylla genes.  He wrote back that
he understood that all the dwarf 'blood' in TBs had this characteristic,
as do pallida and variegata.  Among the dwarfs (dwarves?) he mentioned
reichenbachii, which is in WHOLE CLOTH ancestry.  This winter, some of
us noticed that pallida seemed to start growing a lot sooner than some
of these other deciduous types, but we also know that pallida has that
ridiculously healthy blue green foliage and can thrive amidst all kinds
of smothering growth of weeds and grass.

So I went back to my charts, and did a few more, and am not done, but
wanted to share with you guys what I found out so far and see if any of
you can add anything to this.  I used the Registration and Introduction
books to trace ancestry, but then went to The World of Iris for
additional information when I hit dead ends on things. And I found a few
clues in my precious 'new' 1940s Schreiner catalog!

The following irises are ancestors found in more than one of the family
trees of the winter deciduous irises I know about.  Ones I don't grow in
my own garden are marked with *.  I haven't finished tracing everything
- I tended to stop after I found some things in common, so there may be
more, including some of non-deciduous types.  What follow is <deciduous
species ancestor (ancestral 'famous' TBs found in more than one family
tree of winter deciduous TBs grown now): TBs I grow or have been
reported to me with winter deciduous foliage>

I. reichenbachii (Whole Cloth, Gypsy Jewels, Gypsy Caravan, Pink Formal,
Golden Eagle): Collette Thurillet, Windwalker, Shirley M, Vigilante,
P.T.Barnum, Sultry Mood, Amber Snow*

I. aphylla (Black Forest, Ethiop Queen, Gypsy Jewels, War Lord): Colette
Thurillet, Vigilante (from both War Lord and Gypsy Jewels), Green Eyed
Lady, Schortman's Garnet Ruffles*

I. variegata (Mary Randall, May Hall (and May and Mary's decendant
Rippling Waters), Blue Shimmer (and decendant Caroline Jane and her
decendants Rococco and Ribbon Round), Gold Ruffles): Colette Thurillet
(from Gold Ruffles, May Hall, and Mary Randall), P.T. Barnum (from Gold
Ruffles and Mary Randall), Shirley M., Sultry Mood (from both May Hall
and Mary Randall), Windwalker, Aunt Lucy*, Green Eyed Lady, Earth Song,
Coming Up Roses*, Coral Coast*, Frisco Follies*.

I. pallida (Rippling Waters (also contains variegata), Native Dancer,
Flaming Heart): Sultry Mood, Shirley M., Colette Thurillet, Earth Song,
Coming Up Roses*, Coral Coast*, Frisco Follies*

Sterling Silver also shows up in Midnight Fragrance*, Aunt Lucy* and
Sultry Mood, but I haven't finished figuring it out yet.

Blueblood Yellow* has no parentage given - if anybody has an educated
guess, please let me know.

So, anybody besides me find this interesting?  This doesn't include the
Craig irises with more recent doses of aphylla.  Vicki Craig - your post
inspired all this recent mad charting - would you post names of your
aphylla TBs?  (including the BBs, if they have tet TB n)

Linda Mann east Tennessee USA
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