Iris rutherfordii

In June 2004, a joint University of Reading and Natural History Museum funded group (including Dr Stephen Jury – Reading University's Herbarium Curator) was sent on an expedition to Morocco in 2004.[1] They found a group of irises similar in form to Iris serotina, in north Morocco (north of the Kebdana Mountains), at a height of 90m above sea level.[2] Dr Jury sent a sample of the new iris to Dr Pablo Vargas,(a former Reading University student), now working on related Spanish irises in Madrid.[1] Later, in 2006, another team from Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid (Spanish for Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid) travelled to the same area and found the same species of iris. Then a detailed morphological, phylogenetic and karyological research was carried out on specimens of this iris species. It was found to be distinct from Iris serotina.[2]

It was then published (and described) jointly by Jorge Martin Rodriguez, Pablo Vargas, Mark Carine and Stephen Jury in 'Candollea' Vol. 64: 128 in 2009.[3]

It has been named after Mr Ronald Rutherford, who has been a botanist working at the School of Biological Sciences.[1] He is also Deputy Curator of Reading University's Herbarium.[2]

The newly named Iris rutherfordii is included in an account being prepared in French by Reading botanists for the 'Flore Pratique du Maroc', Morocco's first complete Flora.[1][4]

Iris rutherfordii is not yet an accepted name by the RHS, as of October 2014.

Iris rutherfordii has a brown bulb (19–27 mm × 12–18mm) with a paper-like covering. It has 2–3 whitish narrow leaves (which reach up to 35–40 cm long and 1.2–3 mm wide), surrounding a stem about 40–50 cm long. The blue flowers which emerge in June, have a perianth tube about 1.5–4 mm long. It has purple-blue limbs with white nerve-like stripes. The standards are blue. It has yellow pollen and cylinder-like seed capsules which fruit in July.[2]

Iris rutherfordii was found near (the city of) Nador, Rif(region) in North Morocco,[5] a small population (about 50 plants in 2006) growing in open grassland with rocky soil at altitudes of between 50–100 m above sea level.[2]

It is beside a recently widened road, so may be in endanger of extinction. The population of iris meets the criteria for 'Critically Endangered', set by IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature).[2]

Data related to Iris rutherfordii at Wikispecies