Description
(syn Iris obtusifolia, I. sulpurea, I. talischii)
This is a bearded Iris with several, pale yellow flowers to a stem and the hafts of the falls are varying veined with thin brown tracery. There is a bright yellow beard. The colouring of the falls is variable, some incline to greenish shades others are said to veer towards blue, but this seems to be reported more often than it is actually seen in cultivation. Dykes suggests that in a lime-deficient soil, the veining is more prominent and he considered that this spoilt the flowers (which is only true if you are looking for a pure, un-veined, yellow flower).
The flowers are made in May, on stems 30-50cm tall and behind each flower there is an inflated green spathe valve, which one writer appositely notes looks like a translucent green pea-pod.
In the wild this inhabits mountainous areas at 1,400-3,000m across parts of Transcaucasia – Iran, Armenia and the Caspian Sea area east of the Caucasus generally.
It’s been suggested that this may not do well in areas with wet winters, we don’t have any trouble with it outdoors in our climate, in a well-drained, raised bed, but in very wet areas with cold winters which combine with the wetness, you may wish to cover it or grow it under cover. It is, we find, easy in full sun, in a loam soil and it increases slowly by rhizome branching.
Originally described by John Lindley in 1845, from plants collected Transcaucasia in May, 1844. The plant was sent to Lindley, by Spofforth, the Hon. And Very Rev. the Dean of Mancester. It was re-discovered by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lake Wells in 1895, in the province of Mazanderan, on the south of the Caspian Sea. He sent it in 1897 to the RBG Kew, in a living state and it was reintroduced, under another name, which later was reduced to synonomy. This has happened a few times, so that albertii, obtusifolia, sulpurea, talischii are names for this same plant, the name flavescens is in here somewhere too (but this is not the plant that is in cultivation under this name). It has also been confused with a perfectly valid species, I. taochia, which is its closest relative.
Raised in horticulture, from a single plant first found in Armenia. The photographs are of our exact stock.
