Iris clarkei
| Iris clarkei | |
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| Iris clarkei seen in Bhutan | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Iridaceae |
| Subfamily: | Iridoideae |
| Tribe: | Irideae |
| Genus: | Iris |
| Subgenus: | Limniris |
| Series: | Sibiricae |
| Species: | Iris clarkei |
| Binomial name | |
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Iris clarkei Baker ex Hook.f. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Iris clarkei is a species in the genus Iris, also the subgenus of Limniris and in the Iris series Sibiricae. It is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial, from Asia, including north east India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Burma and in China. It has grey-green leaves, long and thin green stem and violet, to dark blue, to blue or reddish purple flowers.
Iris clarkei is unique among the members of the Iris sibiricae group, as it has a solid stem and not hollow.
It has a creeping habit that eventually forms a loose colony of plants. The rhizomes are slender and cylindric in form and sometimes clothed with the fibrous remains of the leaves from last season.
It has grey-green leaves, that are glossy or glaucous on one side and dull on the other side. They are also linear, sword-shaped (lanceolate) and can grow to between 30–60 cm (12–23.5 in) long and between 0.8–2 cm (1/3-1/2 in) wide. The slender leaves begin to droop, the larger they get.
It has a green, cylindrical, flowering stem or scape which is about 5mm wide, and can grow up to between 45–60 cm (17.5–23.5 in) long, or very rarely 90 cm (3.0 ft) long. It has between 2-3 branches, with normally 2 flowers at the end of the branches.
It blooms between late spring and early summer, between May and July. The flowers appear well above the leaves.
The flowers come in a range of shades of blue. From violet, to dark blue, to blue, to a reddish purple colour.
The flowers are between 5–10 cm (2–4 in) in diameter. It has 2 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals) known as the falls and 3 - 4 smaller petals known as the standards. The falls are larger, drooping, pendant shaped (in botany terms - obovate) and have a large white/yellow signal patch with violet or dark blue veining. The standards are smaller, narrower (oblanceolate), plain coloured, upright, and usually horizontal.
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Wikipedia