Iris versicolor L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Iridaceae

• Scientific Name

  Iris versicolor L.

• Description

  Species Description - Lvs broadly linear to ensiform, erect or arching from thick creeping rhizomes and forming large clumps, stems 2–8 dm, equaling or usually slightly exceeding the lvs; bracts with vernicose dark margins; fls on short pedicels, 6–8 cm wide, violet or blue-violet to red- purple, lavender, or rarely white; sep spreading, unspotted or with a minutely papillate, greenish-yellow blotch at the base of the blade surrounded by white variegations and purple veins, the veins extending into the claw; pet erect, half to two-thirds as long as the sep, the claw pale-streaked; ovary 1–2 cm at anthesis; fr bluntly 3-angled, prismatic-cylindric, 3.5–5.5 cm, indehiscent; seeds with a ± regularly pebbled surface; 2n mostly = 108; perhaps an allopolyploid derived from nos. 8 [Iris virginica L.] and 10 [Iris setosa Link]. Marshes, swamps, meadows, and shores; Nf. and Lab. to Man., s. to Va. and Minn. May–July (Aug.)

• Common Names

  northern blue flag