Re: HIST: Irises and grave sites

Griff and Rosalie,  your comments about your own observations and knowledge of
Albicans and its use and your seeing it brings a couple things to mind.

As I was growing up some of the first Irises I came to know were Lent A.
Williamson out by the chicken house, Princess Beatrice growing on the bank
near their fenced out-door run, and a steep embankment that had a mixture of
Baby's Breath, the iris Honorabile (although it was much later I learned its
name) and Albicans.  I never liked the latter, as its color reminded me of
laundry needing a good wash and bleach.  The hang-dog form wasn't very
attractive either.  But we kept it as it grew without care and never failed to
bloom profusely.

A few years later clumps of Kochii joined Albicans, bloomed at the same time
and was just as sterile as the off-white, but its purple color was vibrant,
rich, deep and welcome.

The reference to the red-haired, blue-eyed folk in the ancestry of the Mongols
reminded me of a National Geographic article about the grave sites found
recently.  That's where I learned about the wool and tartans.  I don't know
the date of the issue, but it was published sometime in the last three years.
The dating of the materials found was astonishing!  We were looking at
pre-history dating back some thousands, not hundreds of years.

I have long been of the opinion that apples and pears found their way westward
by the same traders and travellers that carried iris and other items into and
out of Europe.  How convenient to fill a small sack with the not-quite ripe
fruit from the best of the trees, munch on them as the travelling pack train
headed west, tossing the cores off to the side--where occasionally some would
find fertile soil and enough moisture to sprout and grow.

The best of the fruit trees were the ones harvested in the next generation
along the trail, so gradually as one moves toward Europe the trees found were
loaded with larger, sweeter, better fruit than found farther east.  Finally,
as the trees reached Europe, they began to resemble modern named varieties
more and more.  Those wild ones in Afghanistan and other areas near or in the
high mountain country didn't begin to compare.  I wonder if my imagined
scenario has any historical validity?

One curious fact surfaces about Afghanistan.  The type speciment for *Iris
kashmiriana* came from the bank of an irrigation canal outside of one of the
principal cities in the southwestern part of that country.  I cannot think of
its name at the moment, but a ditch bank?  That implies the iris was planted
there by human hands.  That is not a wild, untouched site by any possible
interpretation.  Canals and irrigation distribution systems allow for the
spontaneous spread of irises that grow in water and have seeds that float,
like *Iris pseudacorus* has in Europe and the United States.  A species such
as *kashmiriana.* didn't get wind blown or water carried to the site from
which it was collected.  Someone liked the plant and put it there.

The karyotype of the *kashmiriana* genome published in *Garden Irises*
resembles that of *Iris pallida* rather closely.  That implies a close
developmental connection.  The geographic separation thus implies the
ancestral plants of *kashmiriana* may have grown somewhere near the areas in
which *pallida* is native, such as the Dalmation coast and eastward.  Getting
to Afghanistan from there requires human transport it would seem.  It is my
understanding that, with the exception of *kashmiriana,* the other Asiatic
tetraploids are found scattered around south and east of Dalmatia, including
Turkey, the eastern Mediterranean and Greece.

As an aside, the above reminds me I bought and planted a few seeds of the
*Iris germanica* 48-chromosome tetraploid originating in NW Greece from
SIGNA..  Germination was slow, having none the first year, one the second and
a few more the third.  The more mature one may bloom this coming spring.  I am
curious as to what it will look like.  I may even be brave enough to cross it
with one of the more advanced modern varieties to see what it may produce.

Neil Mogensen  z 7 in the mountains of western NC

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