''Iris winkleri'', or Winkler 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 ...

'', classified in the subgenus ''

Hermodactyloides The subgenus ''Hermodactyloides'' of Iris includes all reticulate-bulbed bulbous irises. It was formerly named as a genus, ''Iridodictyum'' by Rodionenko in 1961. but it was not widely accepted and most botanists preferred 'Hermodactyloides'. ...

'' and section ''Monolepsis''. It is a

bulbous In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs durin ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

from

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turk ...

, in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Description

The iris is deemed to be very similar to '' Iris kolpakowskiana'' (also part of the ''Monolepsis'' section of the ''

'' subgenus), but it has a brown,British Iris Society membranous covering to the bulb. ''I. kolpakowskiana'' (the other member of the section) has a netted covering. Another close relative is ''I. pskemensis'' (another snow-melt found iris). It has 3–4 glabrous (smooth), linear shaped leaves, which are sometimes longer than flowers and stems. They are 1–2 mm wide. It has a green and acuminate (tapering to a long point) shaped spathes, (leaves of the flower bud). It has a very very short stem, with the flower, it grows up to tall. It blooms in June, with blueish-violet flowers. Like other irises, it has 2 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or

tepals A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

), known as the 'standards'. The falls are oblanceolate shaped and the standards are erect, oblong shaped and wider than falls. It has a perianth tube equal to length of the limb, and style branches that have oblong lobes.

Taxonomy

It was discovered by botanists in 1884 in Turkestan, and then published by

Eduard August von Regel Eduard August von Regel (sometimes Edward von Regel or Edward de Regel or Édouard von Regel), Russian: Эдуард Август Фон Регель; (born 13 August 1815 in Gotha; died 15 April 1892 in St. Petersburg) was a German horticultura ...

in the ''Trudy Sankt-Peterburgskogo botanicheskogo sada'' (Transactions of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden) between 1884 and 1885, on page 677. The plant is named after Konstantin George Alexander Winkler (14 June 1848 - 3 February 1900), a botanist from the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. Later in 1897, Winkler was made head botanist at

Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden The main Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, officially known as the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Komarov Botanical Institute's Botanical Garden of Peter the Great (russian: Ботанический сад Петра Великого Б ...

. It was verified by the

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 2 October 2014.

Distribution and habitat

It 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 temperate Asia.

Range

It was originally found in the temperate regions of middle Asia and

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

. It is also found in other former states of the Soviet Union, (including

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

), and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. Including on the

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

mountain range. It is normally found at above sea level.

References

Other sources

* Czerepanov, S. K. 1995. Vascular plants of Russia and adjacent states (the former USSR). * Komarov, V. L. et al., eds. Flora SSSR. 1934–1964. * Mathew, B. 1981. The Iris. 179. * Seisums, A. Ruksans, J. 1998. The Hunt for Iris winkleri (QUARTERLY BULLETIN- ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY) * Lazkov, G.A.; Umralina, A.R
Endemic and Rare Plant Species of Kyrgyzstan (Atlas)
2015 -pp. 58–59

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15572626 winkleri Flora of Central Asia Flora of Kyrgyzstan Flora of Uzbekistan Flora of Kazakhstan Plants described in 1884