Iris - exposed?

Maybe this will be in the article that Bob eventually sends us, but
I am hoping that someone will explain to the bulb novice who, while
growing or admiring various irises over the years, but never having
joined any of the Iris organizations, doesn't know what the
traditional standard divisions or classifications are and which
kinds of irises fall under those divisions.

Dear Lee et al;
I fear that Bob's presentation was needlessly confusing
without presenting a base line. Let me try to simplify things and
give you a start on the genus.

I) There are 6 subgenera, but the ones you 'need' to know are.

Iris(bearded species)
Limniris -crested and beardless species
Juno (or Scorpiris)- Juno/bulbous iris

Then there's a more complex variety of bulbous groups
including Dutch, English and Reticulata species. No further comments
here.

II) The subgenus Iris (bearded iris) has six further
subdivisions. The important ones are:
a) Section Iris- the traditional bearded iris. The American
Iris Society has divided these into a number of horticultural
divisions including Miniature dwarf, Standard dwarf, miniature tall,
tall bearded etc. You can see this and details of the horticultural
divisions at the AIS web site at:
http://www.irises.org/classification.htm
I stress these are essentially common names for artificial
(Various bearded hybrid) groups.

b) Section Oncocyclus - a mostly desert adapted group found
in the middle east and slightly beyond. Important because of the
large number of wild species and that they can be crossed to some
degree with bearded iris species often with spectacular results. The
Aril Society International http://www.arilsociety.org/ further
defines a variety of hybrids based on hybrid history. collective
hybrids of Oncocyclus x Section Iris are called Aril-breds.

III) Not all these are equally well represented in the garden. Of
the 250 or so species worlds wide:
- about 1/4 are in the subgenus Juno and less than 10 are
occasionally found in gardens.
- about 1/4 are in the Section Oncocylcus and even fewer are
found in gardens. Hybrids more common.
- a bit over 1/4 are the beardless and crested species found
in a variety of habits and includes some common garden plants and
numerous peculiar rarities.
- the rest of the species are scattered among rhizomatous and
bulbous species in various taxonomic groups.

Still with me?

IV) Let's just start with bearded iris.

The commonest garden iris are the tall bearded iris (over 27
inches tall)also known as German Iris, garden iris etc. Few species
are grown and the garden varieties are multiple generation complex
hybrids of essentially unknown species heritage. Some estimates
suggest that almost all bearded species (around 30-35) can be
implicated in these bearded hybrids.

At the other extreme, the miniature dwarf (up to 8 inches in
height) and standard dwarf (8-15 inches tall) horticultural classes
are derived from a few wild short species including Iris pumila and a
few others. Some of these species and their wild selections are grown
by specialist gardeners.

The kicker here is that you can cross a tall bearded iris
with a miniature dwarf and get something in between that might be
classified as a border or intermediate iris. Or not.

These horticultural classes have little taxonomic coherence.

V) The subgenus Limniris includes all the beardless iris species
and hybrids common to gardens. Without boring you with details, there
are 16 series
including some that are fairly neat including: Louisiana iris,
Siberian Iris. Pacific Coast Native iris, Spuria Iris, etc. Although
these correspond to horticultural classes of the AIS, others do not
such as Japanese iris ( These are all selection of a single species,
I. ensata, of the series Laevigatae) etc.

VI) The Species Iris Group of North America (SIGNA)
http://www.signa.org/ is devoted to all species, their selections and
some hybrids. This might be the single group of most interest to you
as they consider a wide range of iris including rhizomatous and
bulbous species or all sorts.

VII) The British Iris Society
http://www.britishirissociety.org.uk/ has an interesting web site and
explains some of the further details if you click on "An A-Z of Irises"

VII) FINALLY, since you asked... The Crested Iris (Subgenus Limniris,
Section Lophiris) are identified by the lack of a beard on the falls
and the replaced series of raised ridges or 'crests' sometimes
accompanied by frills. It is a heterogeneous group and widely
distributed consisting of the common (in CA) Iris japonica, confusa
and wattii as well as the hardier Iris tectorum (Japanese Roof iris -
neither originally from Japan or found on roofs!), Iris tenuis from a
very small area of the Pacific NW, Iris cristata from the E. US and a
variety of odds and ends from China, Japan and elsewhere.
The crested iris include some real beauties, some easy, some
tricky, some very rare. Although there are few that are obviously
close, most of these are probably unrelated and just thrown into the
section.

If you have a specific group of irises you wonder about, I'd
be glad to help you understand more.

best Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
E-fax 419-781-8594

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