# • • t. • - ... ~. _. __. - -- \ ' . D ! ~ 1 ' ' ·. , ··~: . .. ; ·• / •M \-:- I ·~SIG NA THE SPECIES IRIS STUDY GRO~P . ~ , .. \· ~ : . ·, \' ~ '"!. : :. OF THE AMER ICAN IRIS SOCIETY THE SPECIES IRIS STUDY GROUP OF THE Al-'J.ERICAN IRIS SOCIETY April, 1977 - No. 18 OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY CHAIRMAN B. LeRoy Davidson 911 Western Ave., #200, Seattle? Wash. 98104 Phone 206 756-2156 SECRETARY TREASURER Homer Metcalf Montana State University, College of Agri. Bozeman, Montana 59715 Phone: 406 994 -4601 SEED EXCHANGE DIRECTOR Jean Witt 16516 - 25th 9 NE., Seattle, Wash. 98155 SPECIES ROBIN Lorena Reial 17225 McKenzie Highway, Route 2 DIRECTOR Springfield, Oregon 97477 EDITOR Bruce Richardson 492 Twenty Rd. E. , R.R. 2, Hannon, Ontario, Canada Phone: 416 679-4636 EDITOR OF THE STUDY MANUAL B. LeRoy Davidson *********** CONTENTS l Page No. I Greeting From Your Chairman B. LeRoy Davidson 492 The Irids Of Alaska Homer Metcalf 493 A Reclassification Of The Siberian Irises Lee W. Lentz 505 The Range Handbook, U.S.D.A. 1937 507 Dye Plants and Dyeing Brooklyn Botanic Garden 507 Out of the Past - MY ROCK GARDEN Reginal Ferrer 508 Interesting Bits And Pieces Jean Witt 510 The Bibiography Of Irises M.me B. Foucault 511 Comments A.C. Curracy 516 1976 Awards To Pacific Coast Irises 517 An Interesting Scorpiris (Juno) Iris Jean Witt 518 Questions Please B.L.D. 519 Drawing - I . pZatytera & I . cyaZogZossa 520 Drawing - I. fosterana., I drepanophyZZa & I . tectorum ( two forms) 521 Drawing - I. cycZogZossa 522 Letters 523 A Sobering Thought B. LeRoy Davidson 529 Letters 530 Seed Exchange Report Jean Witt 531 Editorial Comments Bruce Richardson 5.31 · ·- ******* !"1EMBERSHIPS: $3 . 00 per year - Send to Homer Metcalf. (SeO'I'eta:l"y-Treasia>er) BACK ISSUES OF PUBLICATIONS: SIGNA 1-18 avaiZabZe @ $1 . 50 each. IRIS STUDY MANUAL - $5. 00 for the set. 492 GREETINGS FROM YOUR CHAIRMAN It had been our intention to bring you here and at this time a double features the brief history of the first ten years of the SPECIES GROUP and the announcement that the GROUP was becoming an AIS Section. However ~ with the upset at the AIS Headquarters, and the hassle that has taken up most everybody 's past six months "spare" time, not much has been resolved. · Meanwhile, your Executive has formulated a set of ·by-laws that should serve in any and all event, (that is, whether we become a section or not). To most of the members it is perhaps imma terial. To those of us who must deal with the day by day tasks of keeping this organization running for your enjoyment, it seems evident that, in spite of fairly smooth operation, something is missing. For one thing, it is virtually impossible to locate willing successors, and some of us after as many as ten years, would like a little taste of the freedom we used to take for granted. Consequently, with the fall issue of SIGNA will come the ten year history and in the interim we. will plug onward towards getting the matter of affiliation ironed out with the AIS. Some may ask what is the anticipated advantage? We had hoped that affiliation would somewhat ease the chores of membership and record-keeping . It now seems this may not be so. At any rate, by-laws didn't seem essential at the outset ten years ago, and we have functioned on the basis of the AIS by-laws , in spite of their being rather involved in detail. The present effort towards a set of our o·wn is aimed a t keeping the management of this organization simple and as easy as possibl e ~ and we do not anticipate any policy changes will become necessary. So look forward to a birthday celebration, and good gard~ning to all of you. As ever Roy Davidson. ********* ~93 THE IRIDS OF ALASKA Pref ace by HO.t-".i.ER METCALF The late Hulten was the foremost 20th Century student of the circumboreal flora. Working, in his earlier years, a t the Botanical Musetml of the University of Lund (Sweden), and subsequent~y at the State Museum of Natural History (Stockholm), he de,oted a lifetime of st,;dy to the floristics of northeastern Asia and northwestern Ncrth America. Beginning as a young graduate c.tu,:.9at, ca . 1920, he embarked on a najor botanical exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula which resulted in his four p~~·t "Flora of Kamtchatka'' (1927-1930). This was followed by entensive field studies in the Aleutian Islands, l eading to his 11 Flora of the Aleutian Islands" Published i n two editions, ed . 2 appearing in 1960. He next tackled that geographical behomoth, mainland Alaska, continuing f ieldwork there and in the Yukon until 1965. Based on these studies was his "Flora of Alcska and Yukon", published in ten parts between 1941 and 1950 (the irids are treated in Part III, published in 1943), and his cul­ minating work, the rr.onumental 1008 page tome, "Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories11 published by Stanford University Press in 1968 . Well-trained in classical taxonomy, much of Hulten's career antedated the era of cytotaxo~o~y and the development of such contemporary analytical tools as chrom­ ~::c~r2.phy, the sr.:.~r:nii:g ele~tr,.:'!1 micrcscc pe, ar:.d camputer-aided techniques . Yet his views on specfa'::·_;):·: :~.,:-~ c,ui~:e in tt::iie with the bc:,;t thinking of the mid-20th Century. I;i his o.m wcT<l!;, "D:ily if a f a:i.rly wid,3 c:::r::.cEpt of the species is used and different poz;:r<:.phic.:\Uy lmited 1-~pulations are t s.xen as subspecies of a main species is it pc-s!..ib!e tnily to :::efle;::t the r.aturaJ. cor,:litfon~ in tr..e norr.enclature . The extrer.ie vari~tion wi-::hin st..!ch geci:·a;;:hically !"iepar .::.t-ed popul;i.tions ca::1 appear to be very <l.~fferent from each othB::r, but often ex::.,,inati0n of :?.mple 1:.:aterial shows that the 'rr.,riations c·-1-::rls.p and tt:-:.t :i. t is p(:SSible t o <li,::;ti~1gttish certain of t h e individuals teb :!ging to one of the popd ations f::-c-:::i certab. of those belonging to the other. !n su.;h c&:;~s I c.:;.m,::.der .;_'!: ir.cr. :-rect to give two p e>;;mlations different specific !1-,::~s antl th-sy c.T·3 he~0 ::-cza:rded :.:..s g•x:grs.phicd rc:.ces , that is, subspecies". t·r· ..:.u ~ ·.:'... e~, -l 9"1)..., . In t he int:r.:-·:h:,:ti-:--n to his "Flora of Alaska and Yukon" (1941), Hul ten divided t:}~·.:- se r ~gic-ns b~o U phy t06e:::c:r2.ph.i.:: dis tricts, and his map of their approximate bo:;_11daries is r,:;p,:o<luce.i ;1eI ewi t h as a gu~.de to understanding the distribution of the irids therein. Theze districts L-.ay be described as follows: The PACIFIC COAST i s divide,:! into t hree parts, viz . , the Eastern, the Central t-:..."ld the Weste:,:n Pe.cifi,.: Cot:.s-,: <l btr::..cts. The EASTERN PACIF:.C CC,A.~1' Di8TFIC I' comprises what is generally known as south­ east orn Alaska, i.e. , ,...the c::last i:!.n-:1 islands from the southern limit of the state r.orthwestwards t o 141-·w . l o,1g . T.-1e district is a fairly natural phytogeographical lmit. Nunerc.us p lants c-f r-:--uthern affinitiP.s extend along the coast, reaching more or l ess far t o the nu~th,iest. The westernmost part of the district, the Yakutat Bay area, is however, 111uch p0orer in species and r:: ight well be regarded as belonging to the Central P~cific Coast di strict . Practically the entire Eastern Pacific Coast district was ove1·rid1ieP.. durir.k: the glacial period by the solid ice-sheet, with the pO$Sible exceptie,n of the h:!.gh r.,::::.L1tains in its northwestern part. The central and southern p~rt contain no endexilics . The enti re area falls within the zone of the coastal Tsuga heterop?,;.yf~a - Pii:Jea sitahensis for.ast. The CENTRAL PACIFIC COAST DISTRICT c,::i:::prises the coastal strip surrounding P:rince Wiliiam Sound and Cook Inlet, togethe r with the !~enai Peninzula. It was }i~nvily glaciated but not overri<ld~n by a solid ice-sheet. The lowlands of the district are covered by t !ie coast.:i.l £,:,rest, except for an area around the northern 494 half of Cook Inlet, where the interior Pioea glcruoa - Betula forest reaches the .sea. The WESTERN PACIFIC DISTRICT comprises the Kodiak Archipelago and the Alaska Peninsula with surrounding islands. -The boundary to the east is set at Kamichak Bay - southern end of Hiarnna Lake - Kvichak Bay. Except for Afognak Island and the northern part of Kodiak Island, which are situated in the coastal forest zone, it is a treeless area. It was heavily glaciated except for the northern shore of the Alaska Peninsula. The ALEUTIAN ISLANDS form a natural continuation of the Alaska Peninsula but are here taken as a separate district. The interior part of the area was divided into fqur districts, viz., the Alaska Range district, the Upper Yukon district, the Central Yukon River district, and the Lower Yukon River district. To the ALASKA RANGE DISTRICT belongs the arc of mountains named the Alaska Range, which stretches north of the Central Pacific Coast district. The line of demarcation between it and the more continental interior districts is drawn along the foothills of the chain and thus comprises the upper and middle part of the tributaries flowing into the Tanana and Kuskokwim Rivers.