Iris--TOW

Somehow I have lost the file I had developed for introducing this Topic of
the week so I will have to get started with a quickly cobbled together
version. Since I have also had problems sending it I will send this as a
repy to Mary Sue and see if it works

The topic of the week is Iris;

For those that may be relatively new to the genus let me point out a few
terms that will be helpful. The flower of and Iris is quite unusual in that
there are two cycles of Tepals (petals/sepals) that are commonly
distinguished. The inner cycle is the standards which usually rise upwards
as in Flags. The outer cycle is the falls which as the name implies hang
downward. Everyone knows stamens when they see them but the female
structures are petaloid style arms that overarch the stamens and have
confused many a first time hybridizer. The stigma is a lip on the end of
this style arm. This flower structure is unique to Iris and a few close
relatives, Moraea, Dietes, etc.

The Genus offers around 200-250 species and most if not all are interesting
garden plants. The traditional classification system provides us with
various sections and series under the Genus but new DNA research has more
or less turned on its head how these categories are organized. Only a
preliminary report has been in publication but I will try to give a brief
summary and then return to using Mathews classification since it is
available to everyone and we can all be on the same page.

The old classification basically separated the genus by winter storage
organs, Roots, Stems(Rhizomes) and Bulbs. The largest of these groups, the
Rhizomes, was divided into three groups those with beards, those without
beards, and those with crests. These are structures on the falls which
guide the pollinating bees into three pollen tubes each formed by a fall
and a style arm. These tubes mean that each flower functions as three
separate flowers. The bearded group is divided again into plants with
arillate seeds and plants with seeds without arils.

The new classification will separate the beardless rhizome Iris as a group
called wetland Iris from all the others which seem to be more closely
related and termed Dryland Iris. This means that the rhizome group is split
apart with the bearded being more closely related to the bulbous than
previously thought. In the past there were two bulbous groups the
Reticulatas and the Xiphiums(dutch Iris) which were thought to have evolved
independently, there is some evidence that they may have shared a common
ancestor. Three genera that were formerly separated from Iris are now
included in the genus; Hermodactylus, Belamcanda, and Pardanthopsis. The
crested Irises are a very artificial group which is still confused but each
of these species should fall either in the bearded group or in the
beardless group.

Since it is such a large topic I am attaching a handout that I use in my
lectures that lists most of the species. I am still in the process of
revising this piece so not everything in it is according to my gospel but
it may be useful for our discussion. Please feel free to make a personal
copy but don't distribute it as I want to use it in further lectures. I
always have to redo some of the formatting on this file when I open it so I
hope you will be able to get a reasonable copy, good luck.

Note from Mary Sue:
This came to me instead of the list since it had an attachment. I have
sent his attachment to the wiki. I am afraid it is a rather large file so
it will take a little time to open depending on your connection. I couldn't
change it to a html file for everyone to see without losing the formatting.
But it looks like a treasure of information:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…
I have also turned Bob's message into text and am redirecting it to the list.

Mary Sue