Re: Re: Iris missouriensis
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] Re: Iris missouriensis
- From: G* S*
- Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 18:35:40 -0800
Jeff and Carolyn Walters wrote:
>
> > >From: rainacre@aol.com
> > >Thirty years ago I found near Laramie, Wyoming a stand of Iris
> > >missouriensis
> > >in a roadside ditch. What was interesting was the great variation in
> flower
> > >color from white through all shades of blue and violet.
> > >Fred Kerr
> To which James Kulbaki replied;
> > Could this be the same patch of I missouriensis as I stopped to
> > view along Chugwater Creek near Horse Creek Wyoming? I saw much
> > variation there, then became enchanted with the Penstemons in bloom
> > at the same time.
>
> Fred and James,
>
> My recollection from driving across that stretch of country numerous times
> is that many of the sometimes quite extensive patches of I. missouriensis
> that are visible from I-80 in southeastern Wyoming at least as far west as
> Rawlins exhibit considerable variability in flower color. I agree with Fred
> that I have not observed similar variability in stands of missouriensis
> that I have seen in bloom elsewhere around the West.
I am curious about size variability. Twice in the mid/late 1970's in
the early spring I did horse/back-packing trips into the Big Sandy
region of the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Both times there were
carpets of small (around 1/2" tall, no more than 5" tall--for those
of you in the real world, that's something like 1 cm. bloom, 8 cm.
tall) purple flowers covering large areas of the flatlands. On close
inspection they looked like the only iris I knew (beardeds, but I
am not suggesting these had beards). I don't remember the altitude,
but it might have been near 10,000', near or above the timberline.
BTW, these trips were done through one of the original Marlboro cowboys.
Were these altitude-dwarfed I. missouriensis, or is this even within
normal size variability?
Gerry, loving the start of Spring
--
g*@mediaone.net
Gerry Snyder, AIS Symposium Chair, Region 15 RVP
Member San Fernando Valley, Southern California Iris Societies
in warm, winterless Los Angeles--USDA 9b-ish, Sunset 18-19
my work: helping generate data for: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/
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