Re: I. Hoogiana 'Late Amythest'
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] I. Hoogiana 'Late Amythest'
- From: B* S*
- Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 09:03:19 -0400
On 10/26/01 1:27 AM, "Kenneth Walker" <kenww@pacbell.net> wrote:
>> PLEASE do not pass along rhizomes or seeds of any iris species unless and
>> until you are SURE of its identity, having bloomed it and compared your
>> plant to the species description.
>
> While experts in botanical identification may find it easy to be "sure of its
> identity" by comparing a plant to it's formal description, I'd wager that
> most of us growing species iris will struggle with this even after years
> of trying to figure out what we are supposed to be looking for. I've
> managed to disprove the identity of a number of species iris I've purchased
> or grown from seed over the last few years. But proving that something
> really is what it is supposed to be is much harder, particularly when
> something
> might be a hybrid! Does that mean that amateurs shouldn't send seeds to
> SIGNA and other seed exchanges?
>
Not at all, Ken. But it does mean that we should be skeptical of seeds or
plants of rare species that suddenly appear on the "market" from novel
sources. If you are really interested, take a chance and grow them out, but
if they are obviously very different from authoritative descriptions of the
species, don't redistribute them.
I'll tell this story again: Two years ago I bought plants labelled "I.
lazica" from Arrowhead Alpines, a usually reliable source. I was told the
plants were grown from seed from the North American Rock Garden Society list
and had not bloomed but were the real thing. Well, mine bloomed early this
past spring, and turned out to be I. douglasiana. I'm happy to have a clone
of douglasiana in my garden that can survive and grow in Virginia, but I
wondered how many others have gotten this plant. Part of the answer: later
in the spring I visited Tony Avent's Plant Delights Nursery in North
Carolina, and found I. douglasiana in bloom, labelled as I. lazica. I don't
know if Tony plans to propagate and sell the plant, but just in case I sent
him an email with my opinion of its identity.
I. sanguinea seems to be the favorite imposter of all time. I have seen
this very distinctive siberian species masquerading as I. rossi, "I.
koreana," I. ruthenica, and a few others.
A number of Dutch growers are offering "Iris tectorum variegata" while the
accompanying picture is of Iris japonica variegata. Chronic in the Dutch
catalogs is a picture of a regeliocyclus hybrid labelled "Spanish Iris."
What you get in the latter case are actually bulbs of Spanish iris, but they
look nothing at all like the RC in the picture.
And so it goes. As one who has been often burnt, I'm just counselling
caution about the identity of any iris species until you've seen it bloom
and made some reasonable comparisons with pics and descriptions.
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(434)223-6172
FAX (434)223-6374
email<wshear@email.hsc.edu>
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