(SPEC) Iris collettii Hook.

1903, Hooker

Iris collettii Hook. (Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1903, Upper Burmah, Siam, Yunnan); Subgenus Nepalensis; height 2" (5 cm); Flowers are bright pale blue, with a yellow range crest.

See below:

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

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References:

Hooker gave the following notes in Curtis's Botanical Magazine 129: tab. 7889. 1903,; Iris collettii was discovered, at an elevation of four thousand feet, in the Southern Shan hills of Upper Burma, by the late Col. Sir Henry Collett, K.C.B., who, in 1888, sent herbarium specimens of it to Sir George King at the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, some of which sere transmitted to Kew. From these it was first published in 1890, by Sir Henry Collett and Mr. Hemsley, in the Journal of the Linnean Society, as a depauperate form of I. nepalensis. In 1891 Messrs. Barr received living plants of it from Lieut.-Col. Stone, collected near Fort White, also in the Shan hills, at an elevation of seven thousand feet. Of these latter Sir Michael Foster published a description in the Gardeners' Chronicle, where, unaware of the earlier notice, he gave it the name of I. nepalensis, var. Letha, from that of the mountain on which it was found. With regard to the discrepancy beyween elevations at which the plant is stated to have been collected, I think that the higher, seven thousand feet, is perhaps an error, for Sir Henry Collett, in his preface to the account of his plants in the "Linnean Journal" (p.14) emphasizes the fact, that though the Shan hills are actually within the tropics, between 19° and 22° N. Lat., temperate types appear in abundance at four thousand feet. The resemblance of I. collettii to I. nepalensis is so strong that I can well understand it being regarded as a variety of that plant. Its distinguishing characters are the dwarf habit (persistent under cultivation), earlier leafing, small flowers, very short perianth-tube, sub-equal segments all spreading and recurved, beardless crest, and comparatively large stigmatic crests, which are bipartite, with dimidiate-ovate, quite entire segments. The specimens figured was sent to the Royal Gardens, Kew, by Mr. Hildebrand, C.I.E., Superintendent of the Shan States in Burma, where it flowered in a greenhouse in April, 1902. The flowers were faintly fragrant. Plants of it were subsequently planted in a border in open air, where they all died. Descr.-Roots of very many, crowded, large, equal, vermiform, brown tubers several inches long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter. Leaves narrowly ensiform, strongly nerved, dark green, bases surrounded with rigid brown fibers. Flowering stems about six inches high, one-to two-flowered. Spathes one and a half to two inches long, narrow, acuminate, herbaceous, green. Perianth-tube short; limb an inch and a half in diameter; segments sub-equal, spreading, and revolute, violet-blue, streaked with white towards the base; crest of outer bright orange-yellow, not bearded. Stigmatic crests large, erect, bipartite; segments dimidiate-ovate, acute, quite entire."
Barr received this in 1891 from. Lt. Col. Stone, collected near Fort White in Shan Hills, 4,000 ft. alt.;
Noltie in The New Plantsman Sept. 1995, illustrated in color.
Yr. Bk.I.S. (E.) 67. 1934;
Fig. 26. Waddick & Zhao, Iris of China, 1992, illustrated in color;

syn. Iris nepalensis, D. Don, var. Letha, Fos.; Colleti; Nepalensis forma depauperata, Collett and Hemsley; Iris duclouxii, Leveille; Iris nepalensis var. Letha, Fos. Iris colletti var. acaulis Noltie. Iris daliensis Dong & Zhao. Iris collettii in subgenus Nepalensis. 2n=28-Simonet 1934

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-- BobPries - 2010-04-21