Iris sicula

Robert Pries robertpries@embarqmail.com
Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:31:22 PDT
Angelo; Your comment about iris sicula is very interesting. I have not grown it and if I remember correctly Todaro's originally description was probably in Italian, if Latin i may have a chance.

 It is my observation that the genus iris still needs a lot of work. I am not sure i agree with th reduction of many of the old names to synonyms by the World checklsit from Kew. But without having been able to review the original type speciemns for many of these plants I hesitate to make any definitive statements. 

The iris encyclopedia has all the universally recognized species in it but I am still working on putting the approxiamtely 1,000 synonyms into it. While i note the current accepted taxonomy i am trying very hard to get original descriptions and more data on many of these taxa that are ignored. I suspect at least some may actually be separate species. There are even some plants that have species names but are likely actually two species.

 It is a never ending research. I would be delighted if you could help me with images of some of the Italian irises for which the Iris Encyclopedia is short. Each taxon's page has room for 20 photos and I have hopes to have images of seeds, plants, stalks, flower parts etc. and habitat shots.

----- Original Message -----


Iris sicula is not at all Gynandriris sysirichium !! This is a funny mistake appeared on Flora d'Italia by S. Pignatti (1982). Comparing them is like to put and elephant and an ant side by side !!
Iris sicula is a bearded species, related to Iris mesopotamica, nothing in common with Iris pallida too.
There are photo and text on Wiki ;-)

Angelo Porcelli




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