2003, SIGNA #70

SIGNA #70

Table of Contents

Transcript: Note; not all OCR has been corrected, see pdf if in doubt.

From the President, W. Plotner :

It always seems that we have so many things to talk about that I sometimes do not know where to begin or which might be most important to you, our members. 1f I seem to rattle on, please forgive me, as when J write this it is usually at the last minute so I will not leave out anything that may have recently come into focus or fruition. I want everyone to be on the cutting edge of the information circle.

First, let me tell you about some changes that have taken place. For personal reasons, both our Vice-President, Barbara Schmeider, and our Treasurer, Jan Sacks, have asked to be replaced so that they can have more time for themselves and their families. There is a considerable time commitment for anyone serving as an officer in this organization and, as with all things, sometimes we must keep our priorities in order. Barbara will be staying on as our Awards Chair and Jan will continue with her husband Marty Schafer doing the largest project that SIGNA has, our Seed Exchange. I wish to thank Barbara and Jan for their service as officers of this organization over the years and for their continued efforts as chairpersons to keep us going. Stepping up to the plate will be our new officers: Ken Walkup as Vice-President and Phil Cook as Treasurer. They will complete these two tenns and have also agreed to run with the slate of officers for the next term. You will find the slate of officers from our nominations committee listed in this bulletin. That slate will include the officers and two new directors and they will take office as of Jauary I, 2004.

We have several new and exciting projects that are under way and hopefully will be completed within the year. Ken Walkup, our new Vice-Pres.ident has volunteered to put together a SIGNA Beginner's Handbook that can be made available to new members to introduce them to this wonderful world of species iris. Paul Martin will be updating our Display Garden List that will be posted on the WEB site as well as in a future bulletin. There are several SIGNA indexes being worked on; we hope to be able to offer at least part of them to you this year. Our Photo Contest will continue to run into the Fall and we will publish the winners in the Fall issue and/or in the Spring 2004 issue, as the entries warrant. So don't forget to take photographs of your favorite species i1is and send them in.

We have two great conventions coming up. The first on the schedule is the AIS National Convention in Virginia, where we will have Bill Shear, author of "The Gardener's Iris Book", as our featured speaker at the SIGNA Meeting. Also, our own Past President, Carla Lankow, will be giving Judges' Training on Species lris. Be sure not to miss either one of these. The second will be the Siberian/Species Convention in Ontario, Canada. lt will be a very busy year, but if you can spare the time to attend one or both of these meetings, I will look forward to seeing you there, as they should be both enjoyable and educational.

Deserving of mention is the upcoming 90th birthday of Dr. Georgyi Rodionenko who has spent a lifetime studying Iris and reporting it to the world. He has contributed many articles to SIGNA and other Iris publications around the world, and written on the subject ofl ris and Irids. We congratulate him on all of his works and upon reaching this milestone in his life.

Editor's Letter, H. Chang :

As I finally sit down to write this, it seems like I do so in the midst of change. So many things are different from a mere 5 months ago when I was wrapping up the Fall SIGNA.

On the iris front, the most striking difference is that this bulletin has been a whole lot easier to put together than the first one! I'm not sure if this is due to progress along the learning curve, or just a greater level of help from our dedicated SIGNA members. My thanks to Terri Hudson and Helen DeBevoise for their work proofreading many of the manuscripts going into this issue. Will and others have been working hard hunting down articles, which I greatly appreciate. Several contributors have actually volunteered articles on their own accord! I really welcome that. We have such a talented and knowledgeable membership, that I hope people will be willing to step up from time to time and share their vast iris experience with the rest of our readership. (If not, you may be hearing from me!) In this issue, we are happy to introduce several new contributors to SIGN A, including Erin Riggs with an article on her work on Tris hartwegii, Barry Glick who is growing some interesting and unusual plants, and Harrie de Vries from the Netherlands.

Sometimes change is good. Earlier this year, I was trying to find out about the state of affairs of the Species Robin as a possible source of material. I was dismayed to find that there wasn't much activity on this front at al l. But almost at the same time, little did I know a new electronic form of a Species Robin was being established by Diana Pedersen with help from Rodney Barton! I think this is a great up-to-date and much livelier way to hold discussions about our favorite species irises! Hopefully, as this bulletin is read, more iris enthusiasts will become involved in the interesting discussions taking place on the Yahoo site. On a related topic, a new "Iris Editors" discussion group has also been established by Rita Gormley, also on Yahoo. For those of you who may edit other iris newsletters and publications, this is a resource rich in technical information and helpful advice from experienced editors. Although I don' t want this just to be an update on internet-related news, there is another on-line project being worked on which deserves mention. An on-line iris photo database is in the process of being set up, thanks to Dennis Kramb. Now those of us with "mystery" iris to identify will have another resource.

For more traditional iris-related activities, as you go about your business this gardening season, consider putting aside some seed or perhaps make a few crosses for our annual seed exchange. Logistics for the seed exchange can be found in this bulletin. Perhaps we can also be so lucky as to have another "rare" seed auction in 2004 (see Will's article, following). I personally will be saving up my pennies for such an event --Hao

Iris Species Photo Database, Dennis Kramb :

For years I have enjoyed the NANI (North American Native Iris) web site for its great photos and cultural information on the various native iris species. Over the years as 1 became more interested in other iris species around the world I joined SIGNA and began corresponding with like-minded individuals. I was profoundly influenced by the likes of Ken Walker, Rodney Barton, and Chad Schroter who fueled my desire to learn about irises and grow more & more different species.

Wanting to give my seeds the best chance to thrive, I researched every new species [ acquired. But even with the vast resources of the internet I was disappointed at how little information existed for some of them. A simple native wild flower like Tris tridentata was virtually nonexistent on the web a few years ago. Popular iris books were sometimes Jacking in photos and cultu ral information, too.

Meanwhile I continued participating in the SIGNA and NARCS seed exchanges each year and growing all sorts of "new" and "weird" things (new & weird in my garden, anyway). In 2000 and 2001 my first seedlings started to bloom. I was ecstatic! I'm sure you can relate to what an adrenaline rush it is to see something bloom for the first time. My only disappointment was that some of my acquisitions turned out to be mislabeled. For example my Iris longipetala turned out to be a Siberian hybrid, a beautiful iris in its own right but certainly not the new and weird thing I wanted!

I discussed my experiences with various friends and in various public forums (such as Iris-Talk, and the IRC Friday night chat). I soon learned that I was not alone in having misidentified irises and/or mystery irises. And I guess it was these mystery irises that first got me wishing about having a quick reference guide filled with color photos of a ll sorts of iris species. Not just for my own benefit, but for all the other mystery iris growers out there too. Again I discussed this notion with various friends and in public forums, and that's when I decided it was high time to create the quick reference guide myself. I got lots of great input from many people, and soon developed a format and a name for the project. The format would be web-based and the name would be the SIGNA Iris Species Photo Database (simple, descriptive, elegant).

I started the project at the end of 2001, and after about a year of neglect, I have finally gone back to revamping and updating it with more photos & information. It does little justice for me to try to describe the site. Please check it out yourself and point & click your way through all the beautiful photos. This will forever be a work in progress. There will always be new photos to add and new information to share. It can only get bigger & better!

If you have a camera please take a few pictures during your next bloom season and send them in. If you have old prints or slides that you can scan in and send, that would be appreciated too.

Iris Species Email Discussion Group, Diana Pederson :

The Iris-species internet discussion list was formed on December 13, 2002 due to my interest in iris species rather than hybrids and cultivars. With just a little publicity on other iris related lists, this list quickly grew to the 70 members it has today.

My purposes for forming this list were: 1) to facilitate discussion iris species cultivation; 2) to permit this discussion to be separate from other iris related lists so that those people primarily interested in species wouldn't have to wade through countless emails about cultivclrs, shows, etc; 3) to encourage list members to officially join the Species Iris Group of North America; and 4) to have weekly discussions of iris species lovers from around the world.

The list is based a yahoogroups.com. Its description is as follows: Iris species is for discussions about growing the various iris species. Focus is on the original species and their cultivation in the garden. This is the electronic "round robin" for the Species Iris Group of North America (SIGNA). Visit their website at: http://signa.org/ for information on membership, cultivation information, and photographs of various iris species. (NOTE: Anyone may join this discussion group. You will be encouraged to join SIGNA but membership is not required.)

You may join the list by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iris-species/?yguid=134851234 and clicking 11join this group" on the right side of the color bar over the top of the group description. Alternatively, you can send an email to: iris-species-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and then follow the directions you receive in a return email.

Brief summaries of the topics discussed will be presented in each journal. To date we have shared pictures for identification and discussed the cultivation and characteristics of various iris species. These discussions include comments from the "pros" in addition to new comers to growing a particular species. It is my hope that this list will continue to facilitate rapid communication and discussion on everything from taxonomy to cultivation of any iris species or close relative. All iris-related questions are encouraged.

If you have additional questions about this list or need help joining, please contact me at:writer@ameritech.net.

A Late and Rare Seed Auction, William Plotner:

It seems that the internet is such a great place to get things done in a hurry if you are short on time or late getting started. One of our hardworking members Jim Waddick, who has for many years cajoled and coerced people from far away places to send seed for inclusion in our seed exchange, recently received some rare wild collected seed from China and Russia. These were collected and donated by Nina Alexeeva and Shen Yun-guang and helped by sponsorships by SJGNA, some of its individual members and by The AIS Foundation. It was unfortunately far too late to include these new arrivals in this year's seed exchange as all the lists had already gone out and most of the orders were already in.

Jim contacted Rodney Barton and myself with this problem, with an idea that he would offer a few packets of these rare wild collected seeds in an internet auction. Rodney stated that it was do-able on his NANI site and that we could put the word out to the new SIGNA chat group and several other sites as well. Jim would put together three sets of eighteen packets each and these would be sold as sets to the three highest bidders. Rodney did the WEB work and it was a go. The bidding was slow at first until Jim sent out an explanation of the real value of rare seed like these; then it grew very fast and in the end, the three sets of seed brought in a total of $435.00 for SIGNA.

My congratulations to Jim Waddick for all his efforts and for a most innovative idea and to Rodney for his help in getting this done. Also to the winners for their donations to the SIGN A cause. My best wishes go to the seeds themselves in hopes they will sprout, bloom, multiply and allow themselves to be spread throughout our membership.

Rare Iris Seeds, James Waddick :

Use of the word "rare' can mean ~any different things. I'd like lo point out how this relates to wild collected iris seeds.

First, ANY wild collected seeds are relatively rare. Many common irises in cultivation originated from as little as a single plant and have a very limited gene pool. Wild collected seed from distant locations is even rarer.

Second, seeds collected from various locations in the distribution of any given species will show a range of variation possibly not present in any cultivated forms. Some locations are visited over and over again, while distant or 'fringe' locations may show unique variations.

Third, seeds tha t have specific collection data that allows clear separation are also rare, even when compared to other wild collected materials.

Fourth, although there have been numerous seed collections in some countries, such as China in recent years, other countries (such as Russia) remain out of bounds and any seeds collected in any part of Russia, Turkey, Iran or other more 'difficult' countries, are by its very nature exceptional.

Fifth, some of the species a re extremely rare under almost any definition. Recent seed offerings of Iris koren11n, Iris ivanovae or Iris timofejewii are truly rare in cultivation. Some species may be newly described and not even represented in recent reviews of the genus.

Sixth, even 'common' irises such as Iris snnguinea are rarely seen in their wild typical forms. Few growers or hybridizers of Siberian iris have plants that were wild collect or show plants from the width of its natural distribution.

Some species will always be rare until they are firmly established in cultivation. For example: Iris songaricn has a large natural distribution, but it is doubtful if this species is in cultivation anywhere outside of its native area. TI1is is a 'common' species that most iris species growers should consider as extremely rare.

SIGNA's efforts to provide seed - rare or common - is a unique effort that deserves monetary support. Support not only covers the considerable operating expenses, but also assists field researchers who collect these seeds from far-flung locations.

Most iris seeds are relatively quick to germinate; growing them well takes some experience and knowledge. You cannot grow Tall Bearded iris and Iris pseudncorus in the same pond, and you certainly should not expect any range of species to be equally difficult or easy.

Please support the SIGNA seed exchange in purchasing seed and donating to SIGNA programs.

Many Happy Returns, Anne Blanco-White :

In 1945, George Rodionenko was demobilized from the Russian army, and he returned to the Botanical Garden in what was then the town of Leningrad. He and the garden were in a similar state: George had been badly injured at Riga and lost a leg; the garden was a shambles. The two of them started on the slow and painful road to recovery.

Over the next three years, George patiently mastered the skills needed to walk again with an artificial leg and without crutches or sticks. This 'inconvenience' is something to remember when we consider his enthusiasm, not just for roaming the mountains of the Middle East in search particularly of irises, but for leading teams of qualified botanists and students. No question, either, of staying in mountain shelters - there weren't any - but under canvas.

At the same time, the gardens had to be rebuilt and there was very little money for the work. The remains of old iris plantings were confined to some bearded cultivars and half a dozen species amongst the weeds and debris. Heartbreaking in its way, but offering immense scope for such an enthusiast.

Work was not confined to replanting the gardens. There were students to teach, and that alone is a time consuming occupation. Plants brought back from collecting expeditions had to be d~scribed and assessed for the best ways of keeping them going in the local climate; arrangements had to be made for some to go to colleagues at gardens in more suitable areas. And, having fallen in love with the genus, George wanted to bring it to the attention of gardeners in the USSR. Here he was sadly thwarted by the cold war when West and East cold-shouldered each other so that there was no way he could import the newer cultivars from America or Europe. One thing he could work on, though, was to try and breed Ensata cultivars from the Russian far east which would flourish in his area with its deep frozen winters and hot, humid summers. In the end, he was reasonably successful with 'Vasily Alferov', 'Dersy Uzala' and 'Altai ' .

Gradually, global warming occurred in the political world and it was possible to establish contacts in noncommunist Europe and farther west. Irises have never been confined by political boundaries and botanists have always taken a poor view of such boundaries. But there had been contacts with individuals, and in 1962 an article was printed in the BIS Year Book giving an outline of a new classification of the Genus Iris. George's book The Genus Iris was a closely argued, lavishly illustrated and very valuable work. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to get it translated into English for many years. But after that, articles appeared at intervals as information which he felt should be more widely distributed was sent to us. Indeed, he was made an honorary member of the British Iris Society in 1963.

Then in 1974 the barriers began to crack. That was the year of the International Iris Symposium organized by Milan Blazek and based on the botanic garden at Prague. Iris lovers from outside the Eastern Bloc were able to meet those from inside for the first time and George in particular. Money was to remain a problem, though, and it was not until the big 1995 International Symposium organized by SIGNA that he was able to visit America. At long last, new cultivars were sent to the Komarov gardens and hybridizing could begin; Currier McEwen was a generous donor and others helped as well.

In 1968, he was awarded the Foster Memorial Plaque, and in 1999 he was the first recipient of the newly established Warburton Medal. Nevertheless, George has never been one for resting on laurels, and in the course of his work, he has published in learned publications and written popular books to encourage gardeners to grow irises in which he mixed practical advice on how to protect plants from winter weather with suggestions of the best forms and cultivars to grow. His latest book - Irises (printed in Russian) - has been a best seller and is soundly based on his experience of half a century.

He has much written work which is still unpublished and we wish him not only many happy returns on his birthday, but hope that in spite of failing eyesight he will be able to edit the material over many more years, so that it can be passed on to future iris growers. He truly is one of the great and the good

Iris songarica, the Conqueror of Deserts, G. Rodionenko :

In every botanical group (section or series) uniting the most closely related species, one can always find a species, whose structure and biology reflect most brightly the way of evolutionary transformation traveled by this group. Among the group of desert irises Ventricosae· (subsection Tenuifoliae) such a species is no doubt Iris songarica … To reveal those characteristics and features in its structure and biology, which enabled it to occupy such a vast area· .. - I consider this to be the goal of this paper.

Although this iris is not an ornamental star, information on the peculiarities of this hard-to-domesticate wild grower may be useful to an iridologist of inquisitive mind. All the efforts of both myself and B. Mathew to observe the life of this eremophyte under cultivation have failed. Its rhizomes, if moved in conditions of wet maritime climate, died every time in several weeks. Unfortunately, seed propagation in such a climate has not proved itself either. When working with this species under stationary conditions, I only succeeded in recognizing its features on the earliest stages of development.

Seeds germinate gradually, with this process taking place over 5-7 years. To note, the long keeping viability of the seeds is a very useful property under severe desert conditions, as springs, favorable for seed germination and seedling development are quite rare there.

In my long-term work with irises, I have paid great attention to their ontogenesis. Unfortunately, stone pages of palaeobotanical memorials are very poor in information on the past of species of the genus Iris. One can read the past of irises successfully enough only if inquisitively studying their individual development, i.e. ontogenesis. The first stage of development is essential in the life of each plant. Most seedlings of bearded and beardless irises on the earliest stage of their life possess a long slender connective, linking a seed with a germ rhizome (Fig. 1, a). There is usually one vascular bundle in the connective, to conduct nutrients from the seed. Species of Spuria Irises have acquired a very short connective in the process of evolution (Fig. 1, b), that provides faster access of nutrient to the young plant, not yet capable of independent life. Externally, seedlings of I. songarica do not differ from those of Spuria Irises, but this i only a formal resemblance. Analysis of the inner structure of I. songaricn seedlings allowed m to read a seer t of their adaptation to a far greater pace f dev lopm nt, dictated by s ere desert conditions. Th 1. songaricn seedlings have six, rather than one, vascular bundles, and the latter can obviously transport water and nutrients, stored in the seed endosperm, six times faster. Moreover, the bundles, threading all the tissue of the cotyledon sheath, give it higher strength in its fight again t the fierce elements of desert (Fig. 1, c). I have not found such a construction thu far in any other species of rhizomatous irises.

Let us continue a comparative study of structural changes appearing in the process of evolution. One seedlings have provided themselves with a special structure, increasing their odd in a struggle for existence, what could the most evolutionally Jabil organ invented be to increase the plant viability? Leaf blades of adult plants of I. songarica always break off at the same height, and the sheath part of the leaf, persistent at the rhizome, is provided with abundant fiber-bearing vascular bundle. In several years, the bunch base becomes enclosed with a "fur-coat" of dead leaves. It effectively covers the rhizomes and regeneration buds. Despite the southern latitudes where I. songaricn occur , severe winters happen there, and the air temperature often fall below -20 to -2511 C. The"fur-coat" is also useful in the late Spring and summer. Tn Uzbeki tan, in places where I. songarica has formed enormous irid ta (iris communiti ), precipitation takes place mainly in February, March and a little in April. After April, a hot and dry sea on b gins, when it hardly rains. The sun glares intolerably to heat the soil surface in the noonday hours up to 50-60° C, and the air temperature is a high a 40-45° C and more in the shade" … When traveling over those area in hot day , I often met local men clothed in heat-insulated cotton-lined robes. In this way, they sav d them elves from the flaming sun. The "coat" of fiber allows plants of I. songarica to save the stem base from overheat and sunburns in summer months.

As a rule, a similar "c at" effectively covers the bases of short-stemmed species of the series Tenuifoliae"'". Moreover, varies of their flower are also buried in the radical "coat". Our character - I. songarica - has chosen another way than I. tenuifolin in the cours of evolutional adaptation. It retained rather tall peduncles and made upper stem leaves, so called bracts, suitable for covering the ovaries. I. songarica, I. ventricosa and I. polysticta are record-holders in their bract size among rhizomatous irises. After flowering, such bracts effectively protect tender tissues of the ovaries from dry winds. To emphasize, plants of I. ventricosa have the most perfect construction of the bracts. A Chinese botanist Y. T. Zhao found in bract tissues of this species not only a powerful net of longitudinal veins (vessels), but also the presence of a net of transverse veins. So, these bracts possess the most perfect vascular system, supporting their vitality. In addition, I. songarica also shows high drought-resistance, due to its roots penetrating to deep layers and reaching as deep as 80- 100 m in sandy soils.

Let us go back to the "coat" of I. songarica; this fiber, in addition to its strength, has antiseptic properties. These features, unfortunately, attracted man's attention. Mass destruction of irideta took place to procure the fiber for brush-making (Fig. 2). The raw material was abundant. The irideta in many regions of the Central Asia extended for tens of kilometers. The total area of growing I. songarica in the late 1950s in Uzbekistan and partly southern Kazakhstan comprised over 700'000 hectares. The thickets of this iris in time of the maximal blossom looked like pastel-blue lakes. This prodigy of nature made an indelible impression on those who had a chance to see it. On the communication of a local botanist S. Erezhepov, the fiber was produced in 1950-1960s on a large scale, and the raw procurement led to the total destruction of I. songarica bunches. This barbarous operation has most probably resulted in an uncorrectable damage to the wonderful natural thickets of this iris.

Conclusion

Certainly, this iris, possessing rare properties, was not created by nature only for the purpose of rope-twining or brush-making. If rationally using its features such: as heatand cold-resistance, capacity for vegetation and flowering under trace amount of precipitation, one will be able by techniques of hybridization and introduction to create in a comparatively short time a new culture of irises capable of successful growing and abundant flowering in southern arid regions of Europe, the United States, areas where every drop of water in summer time is valuable. Such arid regions of our planet as Australia and South Africa, where the cultivation of our favorite irises has been successfully developing in recent years, are also not to be forgotten. To underline, all works, both selection and introduction, with I. songarica should be carried out only in areas with a dry and hot climate, and started only from growing this iris from seed. As to the work on selection, in my opinion, I. polysticha may be of great interest as a partner in this aspect. Its flowers are the only possessors of the yellow color in this group. Ornamental peculiarities of I. songarica can be enriched as well by its hybridization with species and cultivars of Spuria Irises. These irises, although belonging to another subgenus (subgenus Xyridion) are of no doubt genetically close to I. songarica and other species of the subsection Tenuifoliae. The latter is confirmed by both my studies of their ontogenesis and molecular research by T. Hall, N. Tillie and M. W. Chase·.

SEE PDF FOR IMAGES AND FOOTNOTES

Conservation of the wild species of genus Iris in Siberia, Nina Alexeeva :

We have undertaken an attempt to explore natural Siberian populations in order to develop a differential system of conservation for each of the wild Iris species in Russia. Twenty-two species and two subspecies of genus Iris L. grow in Siberia (Doronkin, 1987, Flora of Siberia), which is more than half of Iris species grown in Russia. The majority of these have been successfully tested in culture and selection. Since 1999, we have been vvorki.ng on evaluation of the state of natural population of species and the collection of living plants in Siberian regions. We have summarized the results of analyses of 250 years of archived data as well as our own observations in c1 number of main Russian Botanical Gardens.

Systematirnlly, Iris species in Siberia are represented by 3 subgenern (Rodionenko, 1961, The Genus Iris) and divided as follows:

Subgenus lris by 6 species:

I.l1loudowii Ledeb., I.glnucescens Bunge, l.humilis Georgi, I.ivnnovne Doronkin, I.potaninii Mc1xim., I.tigridia Bunge;

Subgenus Limni.ris by 14 species and 2 subspecies:

I.bigl11mis Vahl., l.ensnta Thunb., I.lncten Pall., l.laevigntn Fisch ., I.loczyi Kanitz., l.pnllnsii Fisch., l.pse11rincorns L., I.r11thenicn Ker.-Gawl., l.ruthenicn vnr.brevil:ubn, l.snnguinen Donn., l.setosn Pall., l.setosa subsp. interior, l.sibiricn L., T.tenuijolin Pall., I.uniflorn Pall., I.ventricosn Pall.;

Subgenus Xyridion 2 species:

l.hnlophiln Pall., I.ludwigii Maxim.

Species: l.biglumis, T.ivnnovne, l.pnllasii, I ruthenica var. brevituba grow only in Siberia; 7 species grO\v in Siberia and abroad Russian territory, I.glaucescens grows only in Russia. The other 12 species are rather widely distributed throughout Russia and abroad.

At the present moment, according to Red Books and different lis ts of protected plants, 13 species of genus Iris grown in Siberian are considered to be rare and have disappeared. Some, such as T.bloudowii, J.hurnilis, I.lnevigntn, I.ruthenicn, I. snnguinen, l.tigridin are protected in conservatories. All these species have been widely tested in introduction since the mid 19th century; moreover only Iris tigridin appeared to be unstable iJ1 cultivation but the others gave flowers, fruits and seeds. From the rest of 7 protected species: I.p se urfncoms, 1.sibiricn, I.ensntn, l.ventricosn - gave positive introductory results as well; I.glnucescens, l. ludwigii, T.pallasii were unstable in cultivation.

No measures of protection of 11 Irises were undertaken, or perhaps cases are not well known. Testing in culture showed that for a rather long period of time in the Imperia l Botanical Garden, such species as I. biglumis, l. ruthenica var. brevitubn, I. halophila, I. tenuifolia and T. setosa had given flowers and fruits but their seeds were offered for the exchc1nge. Perhaps since 1786 1.potnninii had been introduced into culture under the wrong name, l. rupestris. This as well as 1. lactea and l.w1iflorn show positive results in introduction as well. Two species 1. loczyi c111d l. ivanovae and one subspecies l.setosa subsp. interior are not well tested in the cultivation; moreover in nature their populations are miserable.

All the species of Siberian flora are of great interest for introduction and selection and all of them have to be protected. The irises are categorized according to their rarity, and results of introduction into cultivation are as follows:

1. Rare and poorly studied in introduction:

I.ivanovne, T.loczyi, 1./udwigii, I. setosn subsp. interior. It is proposed that they need protection, first at their local sites of growth, followed by introduction into cultivation.

2. Rare, introduced into culture in the last century having given good results:

I.ruthenicn var. brevituba, l.tenuifolin, J.ventricosa.

It is proposed to renew introduction and to place the first and second ones on the list of protected plants. I.tenuifolia is interesting for hybridization for forms resistant to extremely d ry conditions.

3. Rare, with attempts of introduction having shown unstable results:

l.glaucescens, Uigridia.

It is recommended to protect these nt their local growth sites and to introduce them into cultivation. Both are of great interest for hybridizing work: the first one - for the creation of drought and salt-resistant Iris forms; the second one for creation of Iris forms with spotted flowers, it has a delicious fragrance as weU.

4. Not so rare and conditionally successful species:

l.biglumis, 1.halophila, l.potnninii, l.setosa, I.uniflora.

It is recommended to place them on the lists of protected plants. l.setosn is of great interest for creation of hardy Irises.

5. Not so rare, have proven the possibility of being introduced; currently protected:

I.bloudowii, l.humilis, l.laevigatn, I.ruthenica, I.sn11guinen.

It is recommended to continue hybridization work; these species are of great interest for the creation of hardy cultivars.

6. Due to lack of information, it is impossible to evaluate the reality of threat for: I.pseudacorus, l.ensata, l.lactea, l.pallasii.

Among them I.lactea is of great interest for the creation of salt-resistant forms.

7. Widely distributed and introduced into culture before 1780 in G. Demidof's Botanical Garden in Solikarnsk and used in selection works as well: /. sibiricn. It is of great interest because of its variabilHy in local population composition over extensive areas.

This study is being carried out with participation by the adviser on plant history and systematic academician, Prof. R. Kamelin. With support of The American Iris Society Foundation, the expeditionary trip to the Transbaical Region was undertaken; observations of wild lris species were carried out; living plants, seeds and herbarium collected.

In Memoriam: Samuel N. "Sam" Norris:

Sam Norris died on November 19, 2002, in Owensboro, Kentucky, at the age of 8 1. He was a distinguished and innovative hybridizer of aril and ari lbred irises, as well as other kinds of plants. Sam was retired from General Electric Company, where he was a supervisor in the tube department for 26 years. He was an Army Air Force veteran of World War 11 and received the Purple Heart and Disringuished Flying Cross. He was a member of Seven Hills Baptist Church.

Sam's formal education was only through High School, but he said he had learned more since then than he had all during his school years. He was a long-time practitioner of a scientific approach to studying plants. His primary interest was irises, but he also worked extensively with hibiscus and paw-paw. He has published numerous articles, both scientific and anecdotal in the ASI Yearbook and other publications.

Sam's work with the arils and arilbreds centered on the conversion of diploid oncogelias to tetraploidy by colchicine treatment. These tetraploids were subsequently crossed with tall bearded irises to produce a new race of amphidiploid halfbreds, which arc in many cases showing themselves to be fertile with the arilbreds descended from C. G. White's hybridizing. It is expected that some of these cultivars will be introduced within the next few years.

John Holden was Sam's colleague in working to obtain the tetraploid arils. This was no easy feat, as evidenced by the relatively small number of tetraploid seedlings listed on Sam's seedling records. His method of making chJOmosome counts was first used by Dr. Randolph, who passed the knowledge on to Freeman Yendal, who in turn taught it to John Holden. Sam generously shared his knowledge, experience and seedlings and actively encouraged others in their hybridizing projects. 1n an article written two years before his death (ASI Yearbook, 1998), Sam summed up his work with the arils and arilbreds. He made it clear that developing hardy plants was his greatest goal.

Sam was a Director of the ASI until last year. He was also an avid supporter and frequent contributor to SIGNA. He raised a number of species iris, and the local I. cristata was one of his favorites. He collected several different fom, s, one of which POWDER BLUE GIANT (registered by Jan Sacks and Marty Schafer) was discovered less than 50 miles from his home. Louisiana Irises were also converted to tetraploidy, and he was actively involved in the breeding of tetraploid Louisianas. His MENTIDA (named and introduced by I3en Hager) was used in a number of his favorite seedlings. KENTUCKY CAJUN, a Louisiana Iris, is the only iris Sam ever registered himself. Being most interested in hybridizing, he felt that others would bring to his attention those seedlings that they considered worthy enough to name and introduce.

Sam began doing species crosses in the 1960's. Probably the best known of Sam's wide crosses is the 'Pardancanda norrisii'. Sam worked for ten years to set seeds using 1. dichotoma X Belamcanda chi11e11sis. A friend at the Rancho Santa Anna Botanical Garden confim1ed for Sam that his cross was genuine. The first generation or two of seed lings often showed strong similarities lo the I. dichotoma, but the breed quickly stabilized into the form commonly seen and widely available today.

2002 SIGNA Seed Exchange, Hao Chang:

The 2002 Seed Exchange was a bit smaller than usual, with 53 donors contTibuting seed. For those members considering donating seed for the upcoming 2003 seed exchange, it would be a great help if you would to make a special effort to collect and send seed this year. The Seed Exchange is a major fundraiser for SIGNA, and suports many worlhwhile efforts, including seed collecting grants and research grants. Seeds of bearded irises, arils, 40-chromosome siberians and PCNs are always in demand. Also, please consider making a few hand pollinations of pure species, s this is the best way we can share and preserve the pure species. If you have access to irises or irids in the wild, please try to collect some seed.

A few Seed Exchange logistics: the deadline for mailing seed is November 10, 2003. If you know your seed wiU not be ripe by that date, please send a list of these late species so they can be included in the seedlist. Send your seed or list to Jan Sacks and Marty Schafer at 33 Acton Street, Carlisle, MA 01741-1432, U.S.A. (or use email: jpwflowcrs@aol.com). We must have either the seed or a list by November 10 in order to get the seedlist out before Christmas, and the seed in people's hands in January (so there is still time to stratify seeds). AU seed should be clearly labeled. Anything hand pollinated should be marked 'HP'.

Anything collected should be marked 'ColJ', with the location of the collection. On all seed it is very helpful to have a short it of extra information as to color, or any other specific characteristic of the parent. If you are at all unsure of the true identity of your iris, let us know and we will include a question mark with the listing. It is always a good idea to look up a description of a species (Mathew's The Iris is a good reference) to confirm that your flower, plant and seed look like the description.

The top ten most popular requests for 2002 are listed below: 72 requests: 02J054 forrestii - hybrids, perpetual rebloom, yellow, 2-3 buds, 12-30", very hardy from Steve Ploegstra, Lake Stevens, WA

68 requests; 02L138 koreana - 'Clone #1" from Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks, Carlisle, MA

68 requests: 02Ll40 speculatrix HP - ex. Plants coll. At Xiaoyao Ting, Huangshan, Anhui P., China from Darrell Probst, Hubbardston, MA

66 requests: 02R277 -lactea 'Redundant'- repeat bloomer, white heavily veined with purple from Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks, Carlisle, MA

64 requests: 020033 humilis ssp. Arenaria - coll. Farmos, Hungary from Ka laszine Ilona and Neuherz Josephine, Hungary

62 requests:02J047 chrysographes - Dexter's black, 18", velvety black/purple with gold line signal from Steve Ploegstra, Lake Stevens, WA

54 requests: 02A002 lutescens HP- ex. France, very dwarf, from Harald Mathes, Glad beck, Germany

50 requests: 02L139 odaesanensis from Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks, Carlisle, MA

50 requests: 02J051 delavayi - ex. China by Jim Waddick, 45-60", dark blue with white butterfly signal from Steve Ploegstra, Lake Stevens, WA

48 requests: 02A011 suaveolcns HP- purple x purple from Harald Mathes, Gladbeck, Germany

Steve Ploegstra, Lake Stevens, WA

Texas Hexagonae, Eric A. Dearing:

We all know a lot about Hexagonae irises of Louisiana, but their range is more extensive than just Louisiana. They exist here in Texas as well. The types found here in Texas are: I. brevicaulis, T. fulva and I. giganticaerulea. There is some information that indicates that I. hexagona (for which the series was named) is found here too, but this is most likely a11 error. I. fulva is found around the Texas, Louisiana border in southeast Texas and west to Houston. I. giganticaerulea is also in this basic area. These two prefer different habitats, although where the two habitats border each other, hybrids are not uncommon. I. brevicaulis extends its range more northward and is probably the most westerly of the series.

Now that I have given you some background on this series in Texas, I am really writing this to tell you about the irises that I found here in the Brazos Valley area, which is about 90 miles northwest of Houston. For practical purposes, I will refer to them as I. brevicau/is. They were a shock to me because of the diversity I found all in one very small area. The area that I studied exists on both sides of a dirt road and extends only about one city block in distance. It is a marshy, very small, basically still creek that is a drain off that goes into Lick Creek. This in tum drains into the Navasota River. I was told by the person who_owns the land that irises grow all up and down the creek on the side wherein water drains from, but at the present, I have only studied the area just adjacent to the road.

I found there was mostly a variant that resembled a typical medium blue I. brevicaulis. I also found a few much darker purple ones that had a very distinctive underlining reddish glow. Could these possibly have I. fulva influence? I am inclined to think so, as I will explain later. I also found one clone that was very tall. The leaves were erect and the flowers held quite high. The leaves measured in at 39 inches. That is every bit as tall as I. giganticaerulea, although I am about hvo and a half hours away from any known group of I. giganticaentlea. There was some variation in plant size but this was the tallest one.

I also hoped to find a white iris, as I know white J. brevicaulis are occasionally found, so I asked the landowner if he had seen any. He said he had never seen one there. Uttle did I know that as we spoke there was a white one behind a tree not but 30 feet from us. I didn't find it until about a week later; it may not have been in bloom or was just too well hidden behind the tree. Whatever the case, it was magic to me. The whole experience was like magic. My adrenaline ran very high as I dreamed of all of the beautiful irises this place had. It was one of the best times i.n my life. I really thank God for it. I think the white clone may have been missed in part because it was rather short. There were two separate plants but I think they are the same clone. It appears that a deer/cow trail divided the clump. There was a variety of petal size too. Most typical was the average I. brevicaulis size and shape. But I found a really neat one that had petals that were very narrow. The shape was a lot like I. murrayana except the color was blue. The signal was even similar to I. murrnyana as well. Then I found a powder blue one that had wide, more rounded petals.

I did collect some of the clones I found, but only responsibly. Let me explain responsible collecting. Since a clone has a network of rhizomes, it does not hurt to take one small piece of the rhizome. That way the clone will remain where you found it as well as being preserved in the garden. The clone is thus still there to contribute its genetics. In a few years, they will redig the ditches beside the road and most of these clones will not be there anymore. Development in the area also threatens to drain the marsh. This is why it is important to preserve wild irises in the garden. Luckily, there is a park nearby that may have some kept safe. Now about the fulva influence. It is possible that I. fulva exists on the Navasota River. The Navasota River is only about 5 or 10 miles from where I found these irises. Although overall these irises would be classified as I. brevicaulis, they were growing in a fairly shaded area W1like I. brevicaulis. And although some had typical zigzag stems and foliage and measured to fit the I. brevicaulis description, many plants defied the description.

I have thus concluded that this group fits the description of a hybrid swarm, like the many known to exist in the Abbeville, Louisiana area. In support of my theory, check out Introgressive Hybridization by Edgar Anderson (1949) and also Jill A. Johnston's home page: Evolutionary Ecophysiology in the Louisiana Iris Hybrid System (http://dogwood.botany.uga.edu/-johnston/johnston.htm1). Edgar Anderson demonstrates what a hybrid swarm is and how it occurs, but Jill A. Johnston best supports my findings and views on the results of hybridization. It is a way nature introduces new genetics to the wild; this keeps gene pools revitalized. I can't think that after seeing and studying these irises that this is just a group of highly variable I. brevicaulis. It would be very interesting to get some genetic testing done. I have cross-pollinated these with many of my Louisiana cultivars; it will be exciting to see what they produce.

Most of these wild plants that I found were growing very deep in the ground. The average was about 6 inches deep. This I figure is an adaptation to protect the rhizomes against the droughts we get here. When the blooms were mostly spent, caterpillars and other insects vigorously attacked the plants and what few blooms were left. I am sure that deer ate many of the blooms too. Moths also became abundant (i.e. iris borers). I went back later in the hopes of finding seed for SIGNA. There were no pods to be found anywhere, but then this was a very dry year. It has rained heavily now, so bloom and seed should be much better in 2003. The foliage all died back in the summer. This is probably an adaptation in part to keep the iris borers from reaching the rhizomes through the leaves. It also conserves the plant's energy store when rain, and thus food, is in short supply. These plants also direct their energy to the development of the seeds and thus do not direct much, if any, to the foliage or growth at this time. I hope to continue studying this group of irises and others in Texas. I will aJso look to get permission to study farther up and down the marshy creek. I will also be looking at the Navasota River to see if I. fulva is there. I hope you have enjoyed reading this, and I hope to do a follow up article next summer. I welcome any comments or questions. Just drop me a line at: Blueirisred@aol.com.

Population Study of the Iris Hartwegii Complex, Erin Riggs:

Let's Try These Again, Jean Witt:

Experts Column, Carla Lankow :

Iris goniocarpa and Iris milesii in Holland, Harrie de Vries:

Iris Verna, Barry Glick:

-- BobPries - 06 Oct 2017