■ (SPEC) Iris graminea L.

1753, botanical author Linneaus

Iris graminea L. (Carl Linnaeus, 1753, Central and southern Europe to Caucasus); Section Limniris, Series Spuriae, 8"-16" (20-40 cm); Stem 1-2 flowered, with 1 or 2 sheathing leaves, overtopping the flowers. Flowers blue and purple, 7-8 cm diameter. Standards purple; falls with a rounded blade separated from oval haft by constriction; blade violet-veined on white ground, the haft veined deep reddish-purple, styles rich purple;

See below:

• * References
• * Synonyms
• * Chromosome counts
• * Variations
• * Hybrids
• * Distribution and Cultivation

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References:

Linn. in Species Plantarum ed. 1:39, 1753; cult. in 1753 at Cambr. Bot. Gard., Eng.;
Ker-Gawler in Curtis's Botanical Magazine 18: 681. 1803 gives the following with a color illustration; "Herb very closely cespitose. Leaves ensiform-linear, narrow, grass-like, nerved-streaked, deep green. Stem shorter than these, from about nine inches to a foot high, ancipital, simple, with one flower-fascicle. Involucre herbaceous, vales acuminate, a single membranous valve separate the flowers; pedicles longer than the germ, which is 2-3 times shorter than the flower, ventricosely oval and winged-hexagonal; tube very short, green, suburceolate; exterior ungues subrotately pat?? Oblong-oval, convolute-concave, broader than the stigma, three times longer and even somewhat broader than thelaminae, which are ovate and subconvolute; inner segments about equal to the stigmas, straight and somewhat upright, ungues linearly conduplicate, laminae oblong, subconvolute, twice longer than these; stigmas arched-patent, oblong, narrowing downwards, keeled, with their sides but slightly turned back, equal to the outer ungues, inner lip bipartite with segments subdentate, bifariously diverging, opposite, recurved exterior lip bifid, segments mucronate, deflected; filament brown, flat-subulate, nearly twice the legth of the anther. Style even shorter than tube. The flowers expand in June and have a scent something like fresh plums. A native of Austria, perfectly hardy and will grow in any situation. Our drawing was taken at the Nursery of Messrs. Whitely and Co. Brompton. Cultivated here by Gerarde, 1597."
Maxwell 1929; 1938; Per. 1938; Starker 1938; Berry 1938; Farr 1912; Wass. 1933; Berry 1938; Per. 1938; Starker 1938;
Dickson 1794; Van T. 1900;
Grénier et Godron, Flore de France, 1855, p. 243.
Dykes: the Genus Iris 1914: Description. Rootstock, a slender, branching rhizome, of the spuria character, forming dense mats. Leaves, ensiform, but sometimes so narrow as to be almost linear, thin and hard, with several prominent ribs, the upper surface bright green and polished, the under of a paler glaucous green. 1/3-I in. by 15-36 in. Stem, flattened, with distinct flanges, clothed in one or two sheathing leaves, attached to the lower part and rising in many cases far above the flower. 1-2 flowered. Spathe valves, 2-10 in. long, sharply keeled, usually unequal and one very often several times as long as the other. (See Fig. 7.) Pedicel, 1½-2 in. long, rounded trigonal in section. Ovary, short, with six ribs arranged in pairs, tapering to a very short point at the upper end. Tube, very short, funnel-shaped. Falls, the oval haft is separated by a marked but usually gradual constriction from the almost orbicular blade. The ground colour is of a yellowish white, veined on the haft with red purple and on the blade with blue purple. ¾ by 1½-2 in. Standards, broadly lanceolate, with a short haft, slightly shorter than the falls. ½ by 1-1½ in. Styles, keeled, of a pale reddish purple, becoming broader in the upper part. Crests, more or less broadly triangular. Stigma, with two tongue-like points. Filaments, mauve. Anthers, purple. Pollen, orange. Capsule , 1-2 in. long, narrowing abruptly to a point above, 6-ribbed, with 3 broad and 3 narrow sides, dehiscing down the centre of the narrow sides. (See Fig. 6.) Seeds , pyriform, sometimes compressed, with a buff-coloured, papery wrinkled coat. It is obvious from the formation of the rhizome, ovary and seeds that this Iris is a near relative of I. spuria (see Figs. 5, p. 58, and 6), from which, however, it is distinguished by two characters, the curiously flattened stem and the sweet scent of the flowers, which resembles that of a ripe plum or greengage. As a native of Western and Central Europe, this Iris has long been in cultivation and there is preserved in the Cambridge Herbarium a specimen grown in the Botanic Garden in 1733 under the name of lris angustifolia prunum redolens (the plum-scented narrowleaved Iris) is Iris are distinctly acceptable, for each stem bears a long leaf that rises above the top of the flower, and the scent is delightful. Curiously enough the quality of the scent varies considerably in individual plants. Indeed, in some it is almost entirely absent, while in others it is strongly marked. Seedlings are easily raised and only those should be retained whose flowers are sweetly scented. In several other respects also this Iris is curiously variable. Even on the same plant, stems may be found on some of which the spathe valves are equal in length, while on others one valve is twice or even as much as four or five times as long as the other. In the latter case, it seems almost as though one valve is entirely suppressed and replaced by the sheathing leaf (cf. Fig. 7), which in other specimens is attached at some distance below the spathes. The width and length of the leaves proper are also very variable. Seeds of a plant with narrow (¼ in.) grassy leaves will produce some plants with leaves 1 in. at least in width and twice as long as those of the seed parent. In some cases, too, the growth is much less dense and the ribs on the leaves more marked and prominent. To a plant of this description the name I. pseudocyperus was given by Schur (Enum. Pl. Transs. 657 (1866), cf. also Borbas in BZ. 1877, p. 473), but the evidence of seedlings of the various forms shows that they cannot be distinguished specifically. Like the other members of the spuria group, I. graminea is easily cultivated in any well-worked garden soil and is equally easily increased either by division in late summer or early autumn or by seeds. Seedlings grow quickly and flower in one or two years from the time the seeds germinate.

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Synonyms

Grass-leaved Iris; Iris colchica Kem-Nat; I. inodora Spach; I, bayonnensis Darracq.; I. adamii Willd. ex Link.; I. suavis Salisb.; I. silvatica Balbis I. compressa Moench.; I. nitkitensis Lange; I. lamprophylla Lange; I. pseudograminea Schur.; Xiphium gramineum Schrank; Xyridion gramineum Klatt; Fragrance of plums.

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Chromosome counts:

2n=34, Simonet 1932; 2n=34, Lenz 1963; 2n=34, Popova, M., & I. Cesmedziev, (1975 & 1976); 2n=34, Colasante & Sauer, 1993; 2n=28, 34, 36, Lovka, 1995; 2n=34, Dobeš et al., 1997.

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Variations:

Iris graminea has the following named varieties; 'Achtaroffii', 'Adami', 'Colchica', 'Graminea Lamprophylla', 'Graminea Sylvatica', 'Graminea latifolia', 'Gravenia', 'Hort's variety', 'Pseudocyperus'.

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Hybrids

No named hybrids!

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Distribution and Cultivation

Distribution: Region: Europe, including the following countries; Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus
Cultivation: Full sun, to shade.

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-- BobPries - 2010-01-12