HORTSCIENCE 55(9):1533–1534. 2020. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI15170-20 leaf width of ‘Autumnal Moon’ is less than ‘Blueberry Tart’ (Table 1). In addition, the outer and inner perianth color of ‘Autumnal Three New Early Flowering Moon’ is blue (RHS 97A), in contrast to the blue inner perianth (RHS 101C) and dark germanica Cultivars orange yellow outer perianth (RHS 22A) of ‘Blueberry Tart’. Moreover, the beard top Yongxia Zhang, Qingquan Liu, Yinjie Wang, Yongheng Yang, color of ‘Autumnal Moon’ is white (RHS Ting Zhang, and Haiying Tong 97C) compared with the blue beard top (RHS Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, 101C) of ‘Blueberry Tart’ (Fig. 1A and B). Nanjing, 210014, The flower width of ‘Autumnal Moon’ is similar to ‘Blueberry Tart’, whereas the Wenjie An flower length and flower length/width are Shanxi Forestry Vocational Technical College, Taiyuan, 030009, China less than ‘Blueberry Tart’. The flowering season of ‘Autumnal Moon’ is from 10 Suzhen Huang and Haiyan Yuan Mar. to 25 Mar., which is similar to that of Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, ‘Blueberry Tart’. Nanjing, 210014, China The height of ‘Purple Canary’ is 30.48 cm, which is shorter than those of the female parent ‘Sun Doll’ (49.66 cm) and Iris is the largest genus of the open-pollinated progeny population of ‘Blue- male parent ‘00244’ (59.20 cm). The leaf (), which includes more than 300 berry Tart’ at Iris Germplasm Repository in length of ‘Purple Canary’ is similar to ‘Sun species with diverse growing habitats. Most Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Doll’ but shorter than ‘00244’. However, the of them are found in desert, semidesert, dry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. ‘Sun Doll’, leaf width of ‘Purple Canary’ is similar to or rocky habitats, and only few occur in ‘00244’, ‘00246’, ‘00267’, and ‘Blueberry ‘00244’ but narrower than ‘Sun Doll’ wetland environments (Kassak, 2012). There Tart’ were introduced from Xi’an Botanical (Table 1). The flower color of ‘Purple Ca- are abundant Iris resources in China, and 60 Garden of China in 1997. The hybridizations nary’ is yellow (RHS 12A) and close to ‘Sun Iris species are widely distributed in the between ‘Sun Doll’ · ‘00244’, ‘00267’ · Doll’ (RHS 6A), in contrast to the violet color northwest, northeast, and southwest of China ‘00246’, and ‘Blueberry Tart’ · unknown (RHS N87A) of ‘00244’. In addition, ‘Purple (Deng et al., 2009). Iris germanica L. belongs were conducted in 2012. In 2014, three Canary’ has attractive beard with purple to Iris genus and is the most extensively excellent individuals were obtained from (RHS N82B) end and yellow (RHS 163A) cultivated species of Iridaceae and spread their respective progeny population, which in throat (Fig. 1C–E). The flower length (8.5 mostly across the northern temperate zone belong to the Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB) cm) of ‘Purple Canary’ is similar to ‘00244’ (Kohlein, 1987; Mitra, 1956). They are well iris. From 2014 to 2016, individuals were (9.2 cm) but less than ‘Sun Doll’ (12.66 cm). known for their singular flower type and propagated by tissue culture and observed However, its flower width (6.0 cm) is less plentiful rainbow-like flower color. The continuously from 2017 to 2019. Field per- than both parents. The length, width, and showy appearance and convenient cultivation formances in Nanjing, Lishui, and Dongtai length/width of inner and outer perianth of and propagation contribute to the extraordi- suggested that all three lines show earlier ‘Purple Canary’ are all between its parents nary prevalence of I. germanica L. globally flowering time compared with their parents (Table 1). The flowering time of ‘Purple (Fan et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2016). How- and exhibit stable morphologies. The new Canary’ is from 12 Mar. to 2 Apr., earlier ever, I. germanica has a relatively short cultivars were officially authorized to be than both the female and male parents (flow- flowering period that is concentrated in April released as Autumnal Moon, Purple Canary, ering time from 29 Mar. to 23 Apr. and 20 for most cultivars in China. To extend the and Butter Baby by the American Iris Society Apr. to 10 May, respectively). flowering period, we released three new I. in 2019 (accession nos. 19-1004, 19-1005, The plant height of ‘Butter Baby’ is 25.4 germanica cultivars, Autumnal Moon, Purple and 19-1006). cm, which is higher than ‘00267’ (19.38 cm) Canary, and Butter Baby, in 2019 that were but shorter than ‘00246’ (62.44 cm). The leaf characterized by attractive flowers and Description length and width of ‘Butter Baby’ are similar blooming in the early March. They belong to female parent (‘00267’) but less than male to the Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB) of I. The three new cultivars and their parents parent (‘00246’) (Table 1). The yellow flower germanica. were planted at the Iris Germplasm Reposi- color (RHS 12A) of ‘Butter Baby’ is similar ‘Purple Canary’ and ‘Butter Baby’ were tory, Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province, to ‘00246’ (RHS 6A) but different from the selected from the cross ‘Sun Doll’ · ‘00244’ and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for light blue inner perianth (RHS 104D) and and ‘00246’ · ‘00267’, respectively, and data collection from 2017 to 2019. Each yellow brown outer perianth (RHS 167B) of ‘Autumnal Moon’ was selected from an cultivar and its parent were arranged ‘00267’. The beards color of ‘Butter Baby’ is in a randomized experiment of 30 plants white (RHS 155C), in contrast to the orange (three replications · 10 plants in each repli- yellow (RHS14A) of ‘00246’and light blue cation). Morphological characteristics in- (RHS 104D) of ‘00267’ (Fig. 1F–H). The Received for publication 8 June 2020. Accepted for publication 10 July 2020. cluding plant height, leaf length, leaf width, flower morphology of ‘Butter Baby’ is sim- Published online 13 August 2020. flower length, flower width, flower length/ ilar to the female parent (‘00267’) but distinct The work was supported by the National Natural width, inner perianth length, inner perianth to its male parent (‘00246’). Its flower length Science Foundation of China (31801901), the Nat- width, inner perianth length/width, outer and width are smaller than ‘00246’ but flower ural Science Foundation of Jiangsu (BK20180314), perianth length, outer perianth width, outer length/width is larger than ‘00246’. The ratio the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Landscaping perianth length/width, and flowering period of inner perianth length/width of ‘Butter (KF201901), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural were investigated and analyzed by one-way Baby’ is greater than male parent; however, Affairs, P.R. China, and the Jiangsu Key Laboratory analysis of variance and independent- the outer perianth length/width is less than for the Research and Utilization of Plant Resources samples t test using IBM SPSS Statistics 19 male parent. The outer perianths of ‘Butter (JSPKLB201814). H.Y. is the corresponding author. E-mail: yuanhaiyan416@ software. Baby’ and its female parent are oval-like and 163.com. The plant height of ‘Autumnal Moon’ is open horizontally when blooming, compared This is an open access article distributed under the 27.94 cm, which is close to ‘Blueberry Tart’ with the drooped outer perianths of its male CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons. (24.4 cm). ‘Autumnal Moon’ and ‘Blueberry parent. The flowering period of ‘Butter Baby’ org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Tart’ are similar in leaf length; however, the (10 Mar. to 28 Mar.) is similar to the female

HORTSCIENCE VOL. 55(9) SEPTEMBER 2020 1533 Fig. 1. Single flower of I. germanica ‘Blueberry Tart’ (A), ‘Autumnal Moon’ (B), ‘Sun Doll’ (C), ‘Purple Canary’ (D), ‘00244’ (E), ‘00267’ (F), ‘Butter Baby’ (G), and ‘00246’ (H).

parent (12 Mar. to 28 Mar.) but slightly of Botany, Jiangsu Province, and Chinese earlier than male parent (20 Mar. to 10 Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China. Apr.) (Table 1). In short, ‘Autumnal Moon’, ‘Purple Literature Cited Canary’, and ‘Butter Baby’ all belong to Deng, G.B., H.B. Zhang, H.F. Xue, S.N. Chen, and the SDB of I. germanica. Compared with X.L. Chen. 2009. Chemical composition and bio- the intensive flowering time of most I. logical activities of essential oil from the germanica in April, these three new cul- of Iris bulleyana. Agr. Sci. China 8:691–696. tivars could bring forward the flower Kassak, P. 2012. Secondary metabolites of the blooming to early March, which greatly chosen genus Iris species. Acta Univ. Agr. extends the flowering period of I. german- Silvic. Mendel. Brun. 60:269–280. Fan, Z.P., Y.K. Gao, R. Liu, X.Z. Wang, Y.C. Guo, < 0.05). ica as ornamental groundcover. In addi-

P and Q.X. Zhang. 2020. The major gene and tion, due to the dwarfism of these new polygene effects of ornamental traits in bearded cultivars, they can be used as potted iris (Iris germanica) using joint segregation flowers in home decoration as well. analysis. Scientia Hort. 260:108882. Availability Mitra, J. 1956. Karyotype analysis of Bearded Iris. Bot. Gaz. 117:265–293. Kohlein, F. 1987. Iris. Timber Press, Portland, OR. Information about plant materials and

24.4 ± 0.58 b 30.48 ± 0.93 c 49.66 ± 1.15 b 59.20 ± 1.6 a 25.4 ± 0.75 b 19.38 ± 0.81 c 62.44 ± 2.20 a Zhao, X.J., G.H. Bi, R.L. Harkess, J.J. Varco, and research of ‘Autumnal Moon’, ‘Purple E.K. Blythe. 2016. Spring nitrogen uptake, use Canary’, and ‘Butter Baby’ can be ob- efficiency, and partitioning for growth in Iris tained from Dr. Hai-yan Yuan (e-mail: germanica ‘Immortality’. HortScience 51:563–

z [email protected]) at the Institute 566. Means followed by different letters in the same row are significantly different ( Table 1. Morphological characteristics of newCharacteristics cultivars and their parents. Plant height (cm) Autumnal Moon 27.94 ± 1.19 a Blueberry Tartz Purple Canary Sun Doll 00244 Butter Baby 00267 00246 Leaf length (cm)Leaf width (cm)Flower length (cm)Flower width (cm)Flower length/widthInner perianth length (cm)Inner perianth width (cm)Inner perianth length/width 14.4 ±Outer 0.51 perianth a length (cm) 1.42Outer ± 7.5 perianth 0.07 ± 6.04 width b 0.22 ± (cm) b 0.22Outer 1.25 a perianth ± 6.0 length/width 0.03 ± 3.36 b 1.80 0.14 ±Flower ± a 0.15 period 0.07 a a 13.4 7.32 ± ± 0.87 0.15 a a 11.86 1.88 3.22 ± ± 2.28 ± 0.22 0.09 ± 0.09 a 5.82 a 0.09 b ± a 0.25 1.82 a ± 6.54 0.04 ± 3.32 a 1.75 0.21 ± ± a 0.14 0.03 a a 17.06 ± 0.84 6.88 b ± 0.21 a 4.22 8.5 1.4 1.63 ± ± ± ± 0.09 0.23 10 0.07 0.02 a b 6.6 Mar.–25 b b 1.42 ± Mar. ± 0.11 0.01 b 3.52 b 6.0 1.87 ± 16.72 ± ± 0.07 ± 0.13 0.03 b 0.51 c b b 7.04 ± 12 0.12 Mar.–29 12.66 b Mar. ± 4.06 0.37 2.36 1.74 ± a ± ± 0.09 0.13 0.02 6.98 b a 1.69 b ± ± 0.06 0.07 a 4.88 a 1.43 7.52 ± ± ± 0.09 23.8 0.03 0.21 a 12 ± c a Mar.–2 1.36 Apr. a 7.48 ± 0.14 a 5.34 ± 9.2 1.58 0.09 ± ± 1.4 a 0.34 0.07 ± b 29 5.86 b 0.01 1.35 Mar.–23 ± c ± Apr. 0.14 0.05 c 2.86 b 6.82 2.05 14.14 ± ± ± ± 0.11 0.09 0.04 0.41 c b a b 6.42 ± 0.13 20 c Apr.–10 May. 3.32 ± 2.04 0.13 ± 1.94 7.0 c 0.16 ± ± 5.82 b 0.04 0.07 1.28 ± a b ± 10.12 0.13 0.05 ± b 3.24 a 0.64 1.80 ± b ± 0.11 10 5.5 0.03 b Mar.–28 ± a Mar. 0.15 b 5.78 ± 0.11 b 3.86 ± 1.24 0.05 ± 1.50 7.68 a 0.07 12 ± ± 6.02 b 35.44 Mar.–28 0.02 0.14 1.36 ± ± Mar. b ab ± 0.17 3.17 0.02 b a 3.14 a ± 1.92 0.08 ± 5.64 b 0.09 ± a 0.13 b 5.90 ± 20 0.11 Mar.–10 b Apr. 3.78 8.04 3.98 ± ± ± 0.07 1.56 0.40 0.32 a ± a a 0.03 0.82 b 7.6 ± ± 0.05 4.92 0.20 b ± 1.55 a 0.14 ± 9.82 a 0.01 ± b 0.27 a 8.08 ± 0.31 a 4.46 ± 0.21 1.81 a ± 0.02 a

1534 HORTSCIENCE VOL. 55(9) SEPTEMBER 2020