', ·• r ·• ., • • . •.... 1-· · ' . D ... ,: ; : ~'SIG NA - ; - . : ,·_: .· .. • .~. • J . ' . ·Ti--i'E SPECIES IRIS STIJDY GROUP I • • ,I . • - I OF NORTI-1 A.MERICA ... : . THE SPECIES IRIS GROUP OF NORTH Af'"J.ERICA October, 1981 - No. 27 OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY CHAIRMAN Jean Witt 16516 - 25th, NE . , Seattle, Wash. 98155 SECRETARY Grace Carter 1212 Tucker Rd. , Hood River, Oregon 97031 TREASURER Francesca Thoolen 255 Manzanita Dr . , Orinda, Calif. 94563 SEED EXCHANGE DIRECTOR Mary Duvall Route 1, Box 142, Dassel, Minn. 55325 SPECIES ROBIN Joan ...Cooper 212 County Road C, DIRECTOR St. Paul, Minn. 55113 SPECIES SLIDES Dorothy Hujsak 3227 South Fulton Ave . DIRECTOR Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135 BACK ISSUES AND Maryann Anning La Cresta Gardens, 12864 Viscaino Rd. PUBLICATIONS SALES Los Altos Hills, Calif. 94022 EDITOR OF THE Roy Davidson 911 Western Ave., /1210 , Seattle, Wash. 98104 SPECIES MANUAL 4249 'Iwenty Rd. E., R.R. 2, Hannon, EDITOR OF SIGNA Bruce Richardson On tario, Canada LOR IPO CONTENTS Page No . Chairman's Remarks Jean Witt 891 Editorial Coilllllents Bruce Richardson 892 Variation in Ir-is pZanifolia Nigel Service 893 More on Fragrant Irises Jean Witt 895 Plants Injurious to the Skin Jean Witt 896 Note on Iris rossii Jean Witt 896 Iris Subgenus Scotpiris - review Roy Davidson 897 Iris in FLORA EUROPAEA - review Roy Davidson 899 h-is japoniaa in Western Chiua. Roy Davidson 900 Evansia Letters of Elwood Molseed Roy Davidson 901 Topical Species Index Roy Davidson 903 Letters 909 Questions Roy Davidson 911 Species Iris in Denver Panayoti Callas 912 prawing - Rock Alpine Garden - Denver 915 Aquatic & Wetland Plants - U.S . Godfrey & Worth 916 Drawing -I. pseudaaorus 917 Drawing - I. fuiva 918 prawing - I . tridenta 920 Drawing - I. hexagona 922 _ Drawing - I. virginiaa 923 I. graminea L. , Caryological Analysis Ricci & Zacchio 926 A New Species - Iris yebrudii Chaudhary 929 Back Issues of Signa - Availability 930 ********** lViEMBERSHIPS Still just $3. 00 (U.S. ) a year, unchanged for several years, single or family, but only one copy of SIGNA will be sent to a family membership. Send applications for membership to : Francesco Thoolen 255 Manzanita Dr. Orindar Calif. 94563; U.S.A. 891 , CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE Jea.11 Will 1981 has been a good year for species irises in the Seattle area, in spite of erratic weather that included unprecidented heat in August. Not only.have last spring's new seedlings grown well, but we've had several promising new acquisitions. The Evansia from China is proving to be a good increaser, and divisions have now gone to England for eventual identification. We will test it for hardiness this winter, leaving pa~t of it out for nature to take its course, and keeping part of it in the house. A second introduction of I. rossii from Korea has barely survived, but the first plant is now thriving. We were able to pick up ~mother clone of I. cristata, this one collected in Ohio; and we received word of several variants newly found in the Ozarks, supporting my belief that we haven't yet seen all the desirable forms of this species by any means. There were some disappointments too-the seedling Cypeiza he~bePtii bloomed as a small yellow bulb iris! It would be nice to think this is I. Zusitanica~ but I fear it is more likely that the seeds were from some named yellow garden variety. Bearded species, are of course, part of SIGNA 'S field of interest, and I hope that some of our members are devoting their attention to assembling collections· in this somewhat neglected field. We are in some danger of losing the clones that Dr. Randolph collected in Europe in the 1960 1 s, and need to find additional people to perpetuate bearded species so this gene pool is maintained. I hope that some of our younger members will adopt the bearded species as their special sphere of interest, so that exi~ting collections can be handed on. Think of it as a service project - they are, admittedly, not spectacular garden ornaments. But we need to keep them in our gardens, since opportunities for additional collections grow fewer each passing year; and we may need them at some future date, for contributions we cannot now anti­ cipate. We also need someone to grow a supply of old ' Florentina' to meet the demands of herb fanciers who want to raise their own orris root! We receive a steady stream of requests for this oldie, without being able to recommend a satisfactory source. Many scraps of information have come our way concerning the new interest in inter­ series hybrids among the beardless groups. An absolutely eye- catching Cal-Sibe in .. orange and purple was exhibited at our Seattle show, and I heard that the ·best plicata­ like blue and white Cal-Sibe yet appeared at the Tacoma show. There is at least one project in this country now to develop a yellow-flowered Japanese iris using tetra­ ploid I. pseudacoPus. 'I.he "Cal-sata' douglasiana-biglumis (ensata) hybrids mentioned on p. 888 of the last issue of SIGNA are particularly interesting, in that they may turn out to be an even better bet for continental climates than the Cal-Sibe group •••• who else among our members is going to check out this type oi cross? As some of you may already kr.ow, the Seattle=Tacoma area will be hosting the national AIS convention in 1984. Species iris are to be a feature of certain of the display gardens, since so many kinds do well here, and some of the plan~iµgs will be going in this fall. Additional Sl)ecies will be plantP.d next year. So watch your AIS Bulletin for announcements as to wh~re and when to send species quests. ·Just to see where our SIGNA membership lives, I plotted us all on a blank map the other day. The membership as of Sept., 1981 stands at ·we have 40 overseas 1 members, nine in Canada and two in Alaska. In the U.S., California leads with 57 members, followed by Washington with 24, and Texas, Minnesota, Illinois and Penn­ sylvania with 10 each; and Oregon, Arizonia, Kansas, New York; Massachusetts and New Jersey with five or more apiece. A number of states have only one or two members; and Idaho? · Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado,. North and South Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, 892 Florida, Vermont and New Hampshire have no SIGNA members at all. I have no idea how this would compare, proportionally, with a plot of AIS membership, but it strikes me as being skewed towards the west coast. There may be a reason for this, nearly 30 years ago, SIGNA was pr~ceded by a species round robin which had many of its members on the west coast. There is no reason , however~ why we should not have members in all 50 states, and in more provinces of Canada - there are Iris species suitable for every kind of soil and climate. So keep passing the word to your friends - lets fill in some of those blank spots! Best wishes for a winter favorable to species irises, and good seed germination next springl EDI'IORIAL (X)[i:MENTS Blw.c.e. 1Ucluvr.d6 on . With this issue you are getting the index to SIGNA 20,21 & 22, thanks to Roy Davidson's work in comp5.ling it, as well as the index to the AIS bulletins from 100 r- 235 . Many thanks Roy, for this considerable work which I am sure will prove useful to searchers of species information. Mrs. Blanco White kindly sent me a copy of the new BIS index to their early Year Books from the beginning in 1924 to 1939. This is not limited to species, for which the British are justly famous, but consists of two indexes, one of the authors, listing the Year Book and page number of their writings, and the second half an index of named Irises, 58 pages alone for this and perhaps close to 3000 varieties. If you are looking for an old name it may well be found here. Mrs. White also asked me to include a request for sources of both old iris varieties and noteworthy old iris gardens. There is a new organization being formed in England called the NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR CONSERVING PLANTS AND GARDENS. Mrs. White is trying to find the iris portion for them. Her address is 72 South Hill Park, ~ondon NW# 2 SN, England. I Brian Mathew , of Kew Gardens, has written a new book of 176 pages dealing with the iris species, which is being distributed by BATSFORD LTD., 4 Fitzhardinge St., London, WlH OAfl, England, at the reduced price of b 15.00 to our members. They have a descriptive pamplet, which I was unable to obtain in t ime to distribute with this issue, but expect to have it for the spring SIGNA. If sounds like a good ~ook for ~nyone keen on species iris, although a bit costly at close to $30.00 U.S. I was pleased to get the article on the species iris garden at the DENVER BOTANIC GARDENS from Mr . Panayoti Callas. It came at the last minute and involved some re­ ~rranging of this issue to accomodate it, but is so timely with the AIS convention ,there next spring. The garden is one acre and the plan shows you how much variety of growing conditions can be located in such a small area. This is the type of display ,, or point of interest we were requesting information on or sources and locations in our last issue for the benefit of travelling species irisarians.