■ (SPEC) Iris hookeri Penny

YYYY, Botanical author Penny

Iris hookeri Penny (Penny, ex G. Don in Loudon's Hortus Britannicus, Supplement i. 591). Series Tripetalae; A dwarf form from eastern N. America, the stem unbranched almost leafless and bearing 1,or rarely 2, lavender blue flowers"-The European Garden Flora vol 1. 1990., botanists are still debating whether this should be a species or a variation of Iris setosa

See below:

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

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References:

Collins 1902, offers the following comments after hookeri was discovered in the United States proper; "In the _ Dr. G. G. Kennedy records the finding of Iris Hookeri, Penny; at Cutler, Maine. On the second of July, 1902, Dr. Kennedy, Messrs. E. F. Williams, M. L. Fernald and the writer found an abundance of the plant at the station mentioned. Upon comparison with I. versicolor, which grew in close proximity, several important differences were noticed, which as emphasizing the distinctness of the species seem worthy of record.""I. Hookeri has narrow leaves with more prominent nerves, it is more strict and less glabrous than I. versicolor, and it grows in situations where the drainage is apparently better-e. g. along edges of gravelly beaches and at the crests of the ocean cliffs where the plants are often subjected to baths of salt spray. The pathes are usually greener and appear to be inwardly falcate; really however, they are conduplicate, strongly pointed, and incurved throughout the upper part. At the base the plant is more or less purplish and often there are purple flecks scattered along the lower portions of the leaves."In the flower and fruit, however, the most distinctive characteristics are found. In I. Hookeri the inner segments of the perianth (or petals) are totally different from the corresponding parts of versicolor. This contrast is well brought out in the accompanying plate, in which figures 4,5,6, and 7 represent petals of I. Hookeri and figure 8 a petal of I. versicolor,-all natural size. The petals in the former are not only very small and comparatively inconspicuous, but have their edges involute below or even rolled up so as to form a hollow tube-like structure. These vary more or less but are seldom larger than represented in the plate, which shows three of the different forms noticed. The two petal-like lobes at the apex of each style-branch are in I. Hookeri usually spreading rather than slightly overlapping as was noticed to be the case in specimens of I. versicolor observed at Cutler.""The fruit of Hookeri, which matures fully two weeks earlier than that of I. versicolor, is broader, shorter, abd thinner-walled. It is always beakless and sometimes rather bluntly triangular while at others, especially when young, it is inclined to be sharply angled.
Hocker 1938;
Recently restored to species rank based on chemotaxonomic work of Tsukasa Iwashina and Shunji Ootani (1995).

Synonyms; (Iris hookeri G. Don); Iris tripetala Hooker, Three-Petaled Iris, [Spec.SpecSetosa][_Iris setosa_ subsp. _canadensis_]] (Sir Michael Foster) Hulten.

Chromosome numbers: 2n=38, Randolph, 1934; 2n=38, Anderson, 1936; 2n=38, Foster, 1937.

Iris hookeri Penny
forma pallidiflora
forma zonalis Eames

Iris hookeri has the following cultivars; 'Blue Light', 'Setosa canadensis alba', 'Northern Valentine', 'Point Riche', 'Zonalis'.

Iris hookeri crosses: 'Bristol Hope', 'Humble Path', 'Innu Spring', 'Labraska', 'Sancti-cyri', 'Weber's Spring Blues'.

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Interested in Iris Species? Please visit the: Species Iris Group of North America website.

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-- BobPries - 2009-12-25