HIST IB: yellow" germanica"

Back to this one again.  It's turning into something akin to a crusade for
me I think.

I've been getting almost zero response on it, but I'll keep plugging away.
There are photos of it posted at the Yahoo groups site under the Iris
Species group in the photos section under "Dave's Iris" in the I. germanica
folder.  So far, I've only found people asking what it is, and nobody who
seems to have an answer.  I'm still favoring 'Golden Bow' as a likely
possibility, but nothing definite on that front yet.  I'm hoping to do a
direct comparison next spring, and maybe I can answer everyone's question
on this one then.

Some photos were posted over the last couple years (by myself and others)
on the Iris Photos group, and are in the archives, but again only as
mystery plants looking for a name.

Now to the reason for this latest posting.  I was looking at the HIPS web
site, and noticed that there is another set of photos of this same cultivar
there.  Didn't make the connection last time I looked at them.  The photos
available of this plant are approaching to the "numerous" level now.
Anyway, at the HIPS web site, these photos can be accessed as follows.  Go
to the 'Table of Contents' page, look under "News Items" in the top left
corner, then go to the lower right and look under "Pictures of an unknown
iris in Rossmoor, California".  And, there it is.  The flowers shown aren't
in the best form, and the photos aren't great, but there's no doubt it is
the same plant.

Also, while at the HIPS web site look under "Comparison displays - small
flowered yellow iris", and there it is as 'Berkeley Gold'.  Or at least
there is flower with identical markings and coloring!  I still haven't been
able to verify that this is really a photo of 'Berkeley Gold', but I
strongly suspect that the photo is incorrectly identified.  Again, I need
to see some real 'Berkeley Gold' in flower to compare with.  'Berkeley
Gold' is rumored to have purple leaf bases, and I now have a plant received
under this name that does.  It hasn't flowered yet, but it's clearly going
to be bigger.  The yellow "germanica" has no purple on the leaves, and I've
received it with the name 'Berkeley Gold' attached as well.  My second
misnaming of my yellow "germanica" was as 'Berkeley Gold', but that doesn't
work (if not for this forum, I'd probably have never caught on to this, and
would still be happily calling it 'Berkeley Gold'.

This thing is frequently confused as 'Flavescens' as well, and I wonder how
long this has gone on, and just how far back this dates?  For instance,
look in Kvhlein's Iris book at the photo labelled as 'Flavescens' (with
'Florentina' in the same shot), and here is this same plant again (not
'Flavescens' at all).  This photo lead to my first misnaming of my plants,
and had me calling them 'Flavescens' incorrectly for a number of years.
Presumably this photo was taken in Europe?  Maybe this plant really is an
ancient yellow I. x germanica from Europe that's just been slipping through
the cracks for generations?  It certainly appears to be a 44 chromosome
type.  If it wasn't yellow, nobody would hesitate to call it a clone of I.
x germanica, and based on the suspected parentage of I. x germanica, there
is no reason a yellow germanica couldn't exist.

The plant is probably best called an IB; it has small flowers and blooms
very early; but, it can reach a height that puts it in the TB class if
grown well, and if a name exists, it might be registered in either category
I suspect.

Well enough on the theorizing.

Thanks for any comments on this one, perhaps one of you growing 'Berkeley
Gold' and 'Golden Bow' could compare photos?

Dave

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