1885, Iris Bracteata

Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. XX, page 375, 1885

Iris bracteata. Rootstock slender: radical leaves solitary, rigid, much exceeding the stem (1 to 2 feet long), striate, one side green, the other glaucous, revolute on drying : stem nearly a foot high, covered with imbricated sheathing bracts 2 to 4 inches long : bracts of the spathe approximate, 2 or 3 inches long, 2-flowered : perianth yellow, with a short funnelform tube ; sepals oblong, naked, 2 or 3 inches long, the oblanceolate petals somewhat shorter: capsules on exserted pedicels, ovate-oblong, an inch long. — Collected near Waldo, Josephine County, Oregon, by Thomas Howell, June, 1884. A remarkable species in its foliage. The leaf is unique in character, strictly though obscurely equitant at base, the blade vertical, but the two sides very different, — one side having numerous stomata and an exceedingly thin cuticle, very much as in some revolute-leaved grasses. by Sereno Watson

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-- BobPries - 2014-12-28