Iris purdyi

Iris purdyi is a species of iris known by the common name Purdy's iris, named after Carl Purdy. It is found in the redwood forests of California and into southern Oregon, and hence is also known as the redwood iris. The plant flowers from April to June.

Iris purdyi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Iris
Subgenus: Iris subg. Limniris
Section: Iris sect. Limniris
Series: Iris ser. Californicae
Species:
I. purdyi
Binomial name
Iris purdyi
Synonyms[2]
  • Iris landsdaleana
  • Iris macrosiphon var. purdyi

Description

Leaves

The leaves are green and usually tinted along the edges with pink. There is a closed spathe which is green with red edges.

Flowers

The flowers are light yellow and lavender, often veined with darker coloring, and are hermaphrodite. The stigma is rounded, truncate or bilobed and often edged with small teeth, it is the only species of Iris ser. Californicae not to have a triangular or tongue shaped stigma.[3]

Seeds

The seeds are D-shaped or irregular, light brown and wrinkled.[3]

Status

While once common, disturbance caused by logging and opening up new highways has allowed other species to move in, in particular I. douglasiana and I. macrosiphon, and the resulting hybrids are abundant.[3]

Location

The iris is found in Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma and Trinity counties in California,[3] and in southern Oregon.

Hybridization

Iris purdyi hybridizes with I. bracteata, I. chrysophylla, I. douglasiana, I. innominata, I. macrosiphon, I. tenax, and I. tenuissima.

It is rare in its unhybridized form.[4]

The cross with I. tenax, called "Iota", was made by the Englishman William Dykes, and was the first Californian Iris to win a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit, in 1914.[5]

Uses

Traditional uses by native Americans were as a source of fibre to make rope, using the outside fibres from each leaf. The leaves can also be used to make a light tan paper.[6]

References
  1. "ITIS standard report - Iris purdyi (Eastw.)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  2. http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=IRPU
  3. A Guide to Species Irises: Their Identification and Cultivation. British Iris Society. Species Group (editors). Cambridge University Press. 3 March 1997. p. 144,154–5. ISBN 978-0-521-44074-5.CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. "Quarterly Bulletin of the Alpine Garden Society". 65–66. Alpine Garden Society. 1997: 441. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Wild Lilies, Irises, and Grasses: Gardening with California Monocots. Nora Harlow, Kristin Jakob(editors). University of California Press. 17 May 2004. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-0520238497.CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. Plant Fibres for Papermaking.
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