Description
A superb, dwarf steppe plant with very richly coloured, brownish-purple falls (sometimes infused with ruby red shades) and slightly less intense purple, violet or purple-violet standards. It differs from the typical form of barnumae, in having a very dense beard of near black, with an abruptly, squared-off end. This is very evident when you see live plants and the contrast of this short, fuzzy, black beard, sitting on a black signal patch combined with its delightful dwarf nature it makes this a very desirable plant indeed. This dwarf nature makes it an ideal plant for pots under alpine glass.
The botanical status of the name protonyma is perhaps controversial, with other names being suggested for the race, or regarding it as a species. Suggestions that this plant is a hybrid seem confused and are almost certainly incorrect. The true plant shows little variation in the wild and displays the same lack of variation when raised from seed. The confusion seems to have arisen as hybrids of the true plant with Iris meda are known where the two species interface, though this is much further to the south. This of course does not invalidate the true, pure species from further north. Whilst interesting much of the discussion is just botanical nit-picking rather than substantiated research. Our plants conform to Brian Mathew’s description and details in “The Iris”, where it is listed as Iris barnumae ssp. barnumae forma protonyma.
