Family: Iridaceae
Iris germanica
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 38 (1753).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Flag iris, tall bearded iris, German iris.
Description:
Perennial to 120 cm high, with thick fleshy rhizomes at the soil surface; leaves sword-shaped, erect, acute, 30-50 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide, glaucous, distichous in fan-shaped clusters; stem erect, with 1 or 2 lateral branches subtended by short leaves.
Cymes 2-5-flowered; spathe bracts ovate, 3-5 cm long, herbaceous with scarious apices; flowers shortly pedicellate, usually white, less often blue, yellow, violet or multicoloured, spicy-scented; perianth tube funnel-shaped, c. 2 cm long; outer lobes obovate, emarginate, 6-7 cm long, decurved, with a beard of yellow hairs along the mid-vein for half their length; inner lobes obovate, 6-7 cm long, erect-incurved, glabrous; style branches broadly spathulate, with acute crests 3-6 mm long.
Capsule obovoid, 4-5 cm long, beakless, pale-brown; seeds globose-angular, c. 5 mm diam., wrinkled, redbrown.
Published illustration:
Healy & Edgar (1980) Flora of New Zealand 3:127.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: NL, YP, SL, KI, SE. W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic. A garden plant cultivated in Europe since classical times, and probably derived by hybridisation of species from the eastern Mediterranean region.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: Sept., Oct.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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