Difference: SpecCaucasica (r14 vs. r13)

■ (SPEC) Iris caucasica Hoff.

1808, botanical author Hoffmann

Iris caucasica Hoffmann (Georg Franz Hoffmann, 1808, Caucasus); Subgenus Scorpiris, Juno; Height 4-7" (10-18 cm); Color Class-Y4L; Storage roots only slightly thickened; Usually 5-7 well developed leaves at flowering time. The falcate, glaucous leaves are about 2 cm wide at the base and have somewhat indistinct margins that vary from densely ciliate to smooth. The leaves hide the stem or the internodes are just barely visible when the up to 4 flowers are produced. The yellow flowers arise from a perianth tube of 3-4 cm which is hidden and surrounded by a green and pointed bract and bracteole of about 6 cm length. The falls are nearly the same width at the haft as on the blade, but the wings on the haft turn upwards. The blade of the falls bears a crenulate, darker yellow crest. The standards turn downward or flare outward, are 1.3-2.5 cm long, oblanceolate, ending in a point or sometime three lobes. Style branches 2.5-3.5 cm long, elliptic to oblong. I. caucasica is separated from I. pseudocaucasica on the shape and size of the "falls".
Caucasica's haft is not widely winged and its blade wider both parts being between 1-1.8 cm wide. Whereas pseudocaucasica's haft is up to 2 cm wide while the blade is under 1 cm wide.
Pl. Iber. 1806, in Soc. Phys. Mosc. 1: 4, 40. 1880;

See below:

• * References
• * Synonyms
• * Variations
• * Hybrids
• * Distribution and Cultivation

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References:

Iris caucasica Hoffm., Commentat. Soc. Phys.-Med. Univ. Lit. Caes. Mosq. 1: 40 (1808).
A Guide to Species Irises, their Identification and Cultivation, The Species Group of The British Iris Society, 1997, Cambridge;
Krel. 1875; Fl. Orient. 5: 121, 1882;
Barr 1898; Van T. 1900; 1909; Grull. 1907; Wal. 1913;
Sweet in the British Flower Garden, table 255;
Gartenflora 23: 194. tab. 800. 1874, illustrated in color
Sir Michael Foster in Boulbous Irises; 1892;
Dykes in The Genus Iris; 1913;Description. Rootstock , an ovate bulb, with thin brownish outer skins, and fleshy roots, persistent through the resting period. Leaves , 4-6 in a tuft, lanceolate, falcate, bright glossy green above and glaucous beneath with a white horny edge closely set with minute setae, 4-6 in. long at flowering time; the leaves of non-flowering bulbs are two or more inches longer. Stem , very short, bearing 1-4 flowers, two forming the terminal spike, the others being sessile in the axils of the leaves. Spathes , flowered ; valves, green, inflated, lanceolate, not reaching to the top of the tube ; 2 in. long. Pedicel , none or extremely short, not developing even after flowering. Ovary , cylindrical, ½ in. long. Tube , 1½-2 in. long, slender at the base and becoming slightly broader above. Falls , greenish-yellow, becoming more distinctly yellow some time after opening; the haft is broad or wedge-shaped and the blade varies considerably in shape ; sometimes the ovate extremity expands into two large almost transparent wings ; in other cases these wings are only slightly developed and the whole blade is a rounded oblong ; the yellow or orange crest is finely toothed, almost breaking into hairs. Standards , usually deflexed rather than spreading ; the deeply channelled haft opening into a small oblanceolate blade, sometimes so deeply toothed on either side as to become tridentate. Styles , broad, greenish, sharply keeled. Crests , large, broadly deltoid. Stigma , bilobed, with a fringed edge, and a more or less well-marked cusp between the two segments. Fi!aments , about equal in length to the anthers, greenish-yellow. Anthers , creamy, large, reaching to the stigma. Pollen , whitish, spherical, with pentagonal bosses. Capsule , cylindrical, with thin papery walls, 1-1½ in. in length. Seeds , spherical or globose, not irregularly compressed as in I. orchioides.Observations.After I. alata, which was known to Clusius, I. caucasica was the next Juno species to be described. It is not a striking nor a very ornamental plant, but the almost transparent flowers of a delicate yellow harmonise so well with the glossy upper surface of the leaves that the result is very pleasing.Its foliage is stiffer and more rigid than that of most of the other species and the spathes are much inflated.The typical plant from the Caucasus is small and bears only one or two flowers, but there are taller and more luxuriant forms further south in Asia Minor. Cf. Foster's var. Kharput in Bulbous Irises, p. 78.There is considerable doubt whether the plant that Foster called caucasica var, major (turkestanica) (ibid. pp. 36, 76 and Fig. 52) really came from Turkestan, for no such specimens apparently exist in herbarium collections, and reference to an article in the Gard. Chron. 1889, i. p. 582 shows that Foster only "understood (the specimens) were gathered in Turkestan."The lateral expansions of the haft of the fall are sometimes not much developed. This was the distinguishing mark of Foster's caucasica var. Barnumensis (see Gard. Chron., I.e.) which he afterwards renamed var. Kharput (see Bulbous Irises, I.e.).

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Synonyms

Coresantha caucasica, Klatt; Costia caucasica, Willk.; Juno Caucasica, Klatt in Bot. Zeit. 30: 498, 1872; Neubeckia caucasica, Alef.; Thelysia caucasica, Parl.; Xiphium caucasicum, Baker in Journ. Bot. 9: 109, 1871.

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Chromosome counts

2n=18 Delaunay 1928.

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Variations

Iris caucasica subsp. caucasica.Iris caucasica subsp. turcica B.Mathew, Garden (London, 1975+) 106: 478 (1981). ----

Hybrids

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Distribution & Cultivation

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-- Main.RPries - 2010-01-08

I	Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
jpg	cauasica_Tony_Hall_Sample.jpg	manage	101 K	14 Jan 2015 - 17:40	BobPries	Tony Hall photo sampled
jpg	caucasica-Tony_Hall.jpg	manage	132 K	14 Jan 2015 - 17:40	BobPries	Tony Hall photo
jpg	caucasica_kelaidis.jpg	manage	4 MB	15 Jan 2015 - 16:58	BobPries	Panayoti Kelaidis photo
jpg	caucasica_kelaidis2.jpg	manage	5 MB	15 Jan 2015 - 17:03	BobPries	Panayoti Kelaidis photo
jpg	caucasica_kelaidis3.jpg	manage	5 MB	15 Jan 2015 - 17:00	BobPries	Panayoti Kelaidis photo
jpg	gartenfloraCaucasicaTable800.jpg	manage	88 K	20 Nov 2013 - 19:11	BobPries	Biodiversity Heritage Library