''Iris boissieri'' (also known as the yellowbeard iris), is a species in the genus ''

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

'', it is also in the subgenus Xiphium. It is from Europe, mainly Spain and Portugal. It has blue-purple (or deep purple) flowers with a yellow beard.

Description

It flowers in June.Lynch, Richard It normally has only one flower per stem.James Cullen, Sabina G. Knees, H. Suzanne Cubey (Editors) The flower is blue-purple (or deep purple), with a yellow or orange beard. It grows between 30 and 40 cm tall. The leaves appear in spring. It is the only bearded iris in the 'Xiphion' section.

Taxonomy

It is also known as the 'yellowbeard iris'. Named after

Edmond Boissier Pierre Edmond Boissier (25 May 1810 Geneva – 25 September 1885 Valeyres-sous-Rances) was a Swiss prominent botanist, explorer and mathematician. He was the son of Jacques Boissier (1784-1857) and Caroline Butini (1786-1836), daughter of Pier ...

(a Swiss botanist 1810-1885). In 1877, Mr A.W. Tait (from

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, Portugal) sent the bulbs to Sir Michael Foster who grew them in the UK. It was first described in 1885 by Portuguese botanist

Julio Augusto Henriques Júlio Augusto Henriques (15 January 1838 - 15 January 1928) was a Portuguese botanist and professor at the University of Coimbra. He developed the Herbarium of the University and Coimbra Botanical Garden. He also founded the Broterian Society, w ...

in ''Boletim da Sociedade Broteriana'' Vols. 1-28. It was also described by Mr Foster in 'The Gardeners' Chronicles' of 1887, vol. ii. page38. It was then described in

Curtis's Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...

7097 in 1890 again by Mr Foster. It was verified by

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

and the Agricultural Research Service on 4 April 2003 and then updated on 2 December 2004.

Distribution and habitat

''Iris boissieri'' is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to Europe.

Range

It was originally found in the

Serra do Gerês Serra (Latin for "saw") may refer to: People * Serra (footballer) (born 1961), Portuguese footballer * Serra (surname) * Serra (given name) Cities, towns, municipalities Brazil *Serra, Espírito Santo, a city in the Greater Vitória area *Amp ...

(a mountain range in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

), Northwest

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, within ( Galicia).

Habitat

It likes to grows in rocky shallow soils, at an altitude of above sea level.

Conservation

It was on the 1997

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

of Threatened Plants. It was listed on the ''European Red List of Vascular Plants'' in 2011 as Data Deficient (DD). Very few plants (less than a 1000) were found in Spain in 2004 and less than a 10,000 plants were found in Portugal. Also these numbers were gradually going down as well. ''Iris boissieri'' was listed on Annex IV of the

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

(of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

). It was therefore assessed as 'Critically Endangered'.

Cultivation

It is best grown in a

bulb frame In agriculture and gardening, a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground, used to protect plants from adverse weather, primarily excessive cold or wet. The transparent top admits sunlight and prevents heat escape via c ...

. There is a specimen in the

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

herbarium, collected by Winkler in 1876. There is also a specimen in the 'Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques' in

Genève , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, collected in 1899.

Hybrids and cultivars

Emily Jean Stevens (1900–1967) was a hybridiser of ''Iris boissieri'' and '' Iris juncea'' in the 1950s.

References

Other sources

*Mathew, B. 1981. The Iris. (Iris) 135. *Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea. (F Eur)

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15570132 boissieri Plants described in 1876 Flora of Portugal Flora of Spain Flora of Europe Endemic flora of the Iberian Peninsula