Re: SPEC?: Another Florida Iris.--ALBISPIRITUS ?

Mark Cook asked:

<<    The Iris has small leaves, and long thin red roots.  The Daylily
 Hybridizer called it the "Red Root Iris" and said that it has white flowers
 and stands about 12 " tall in bloom.  He said that this plant grows wild in
 peat bogs in the northern half of Florida.  He does not keep the plants
 because they can interfere with the Daylily seedlings. >>

Mark,  I wonder if by some very remote possibility you have stumbled on the
elusive and very rare if not absolutely non-existent Iris albispiritus, the
Ghost Iris, that Clarence is so interested in. I don't know much about this
plant, now considered not a true species, and I don't have a formal
description here but I do know that it is said to have white flowers with a
yellow blotch. I think you should write Clarence a note about it with a full
and very detailed description. You can see the discussion of this subject in
the Archives if you use the word "albispiritus" to search.

Otherwise it could be tridentata, I suppose. The only irises I know off hand
with really red roots are those which, like Japanese irises or pseudacorus,
contain red in the rhizome and have been injured. 

Anner  Whitehead, Richmond, VA 
Henry Hall  henryanner@aol,com
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