Re: CAT: ID'ing unknowns [was: Riverview, ID'ing unknowns]

Linda, I agree there is a need for some way to ID our many unknowns.   Some of
these are older varieties that could have considerable historic significance.
Someone may have been searching for this or that particular cv for years--who
knows?

The trouble is--bearded irises at least, if not all iris, vary greatly with
differences in climate, soil, fertility, micronutrient balances and so on.
Not only is it difficult to identify an iris from a photograph, the very clues
to identity may not be captured on film.

Rhizomes smell different variety to variety.  Some are spicy, delicious in
their fragrance, some others are dull thuds or sour.  I've never, ever heard
anyone comment on this, yet it is as distinctive for some varieties as PBF
(purple based foliage) is for others.

Some varieties have papery sheaths, others rich green ones, still others green
with a purple or violet border.  These characteristics are also to be noted.
So is the character of the stalk--the branching, placement and angle of
extension (how wide the angle from the central stalk the branch makes)--does
vary with conditions, but has enough uniformity to be useful in
identification.

One of the most unique characteristics of iris varieties is the pattern of
veins and dots in the claw and haft.  The markings inside the base of the
standards are also unique, although variations are harder to pin down than
with the falls.  Those fall haft-and-claw markings are as distinctive and
individual as fingerprints are in humans.

Another factor in variety recognition is what I would call the "character" of
the plant taken as a whole.  There is a global, subtle, difficult to describe
something about any particular iris variety that is unlike any other.
Included perhaps might be the shapes of the fans, the shape and twist of the
single leaves, the color of the foliage (a factor that varies from
yellowish-green to glaucous blue green as in species *pallida*), and the color
and character of cast-off outer foliage that has not yet been cleaned away.
I am sure there are many other bits and pieces of subliminal clues along with
these that simply shout at the irisarian "SKYWALKER" or "BEVERLY SILLS."

When I was much younger I could recognize many of the varieties I grew at a
glance--I'm talking about when they were not in bloom.  I suspect many growers
who spend a lot of time looking at their plants out of season could probably
say the same.

If I had to pick one characteristic out of all of those above I would take the
haft pattern as the unique, most useful index tool for variety identification.
I cannot imagine anyone willing or able, however, to collect digital
photographs of the hafts of all the many thousands of cultivars that have or
do exist, devise a system for cataloging them and entering the whole mass into
a competent database.

Then, of course, there is DNA "fingerprinting," although what I read about the
methodology in current use suggests a classification problem as complex as
that of sorting out the haft-marking patterns described above.

Neil Mogensen   z 7 western NC mountains

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