Re: MASS Medley

My *Primo* iris seen at the Mass Medley was not a guest, and in fact, has
been the subject of much whacking-up in recent weeks on the Iris-L. I'm
almost afraid to mention it, however, circumspection has never been my long
suit, so here goes.

There were two clumps in Steve and Marcia Smiths' upper pond, just at the
edge of the water. There were no labels on the clumps and I queried several
people before getting an identification. It turned out to be the notorious
villain, pseudacorus, poised to float forth and populate the world.

The clumps were good size, probably two feet or more in diameter, and
extremely floriferous, crowded with stalks. The blooms looked like
pseudacorus on steroids, huge and beautifully formed, a glowing,
luminescent yellow. Hands down winner of my vote for the most outstanding
cultivar at the Medley.

I looked up the description when we returned home:

BUERON (Eckard Berlin 1980) sdlg. 102-B-Ecke. LAEV, 39" M. S. light yellow;
F. yellow. Colchicine-treated seed of I. pseudacorus of unknown origin.

The clumps at Smiths' were taller than the above, probably at least 45" by
my guesstimate. 'Iris' by Fritz Kohlein has a somewhat more lengthy
description and mentions that BUERON is a fertile tetraploid. It was my
impression that the flowers were held considerably higher in the foliage
than is the case with diploid pseudacorus, though this flies in the face of
most other tet conversions. (example: tet hems -- dinner plates on short
sticks) I need to get my slides back to confirm this impression.

Best regards,

Mike Lowe, Virginia, USA
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index