(SPEC) Iris kashmiriana Baker

1877, Botanical author Baker

Iris kashmiriana Baker ( John Gilbert Baker, 1877).

See below:

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

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References:

Baker gives the following original diagnosis in Gardeners' Chronicles 1877, II p,744-. And later in Handbook of the Irideae p. 38 (1892): "Rhizome stout, short-creeping. Leaves ensiform (swordlike), slightly glaucous, 1 1/2 ft long, above an inch broad. Stem 3 ft. long, bearing several clusters. Spathes 2-3 flowered, 3 in. long; valves scariose towards the tip at flowering time; pedicels short. Perianth-tube cylindrical, above an inch long; limb 3 in. long, pure white tipped with yellow; falls each 1 1/4-1 1/2 in broad. Style branches above an inch long; crests large, deltoid. Habitat Kashmir. Introduced to Kew by Dr. Aitchison about 1875. Flowers sweet scented, produced late in May." Kashmiriana is a white Iris with occassional purple forms. This means that there could be some confusion with the other two white tall-bearded species; albicans and florentina. Dykes in his Genus Iris offered the following observations to distinguish it from florentina and albicans. "From the latter it is at once distinguished by its more widely branching stems and by the fact that its standards always bear a few hairs on the inner side near the base. These never occur in I. albicans, though they are always present in I. florentina. From this latter, however, I. kashmiriuana may be distinguished by persistently green spathes, by its broad, yellow-green, ribbed leaves, by the stiffly spreading and not drooping falls, and by the milk white flowers."
Foster named another species I. bartonii but Dykes considers that this is simply a form of kashmiriana with greenish veins. He notes that plants that he has grown and in Foster's notes there were variable plants with sometimes purple markings on the falls. 'Bartoni' has a very long beard (1 inch) on the haft of the standards, but Dykes found that Foster records that, in some plants that flowered in 1885, the hairs on the standards were "much less developed", hardly visible often. Dykes makes a point that the bracts below the flower remain green but Baker in the original diagnosis notes that they are scarious towards the tip at flowering. Even so there is an imposter pourple form being distributed as Iris kashmiriana in the USA, that is no doubt a germanica and has at least have of the bracts dry and papery at flowering.

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Synonyms

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Chromosome counts

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Variations

Iris kashmiriana cultivars

• 'Bartoni', 'Kashmiriana Purpurea', 'Raniket'.

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Hybrids

Iris kashmiriana crosses

• 'Dalkish', 'Kashmir White', 'Miss Willmott'.

¼ Iris kashmiriana crosses

• 'Angkhor Vat', 'Argentina', 'Azulado', 'Blanche', 'Emily Pyke', 'Kalif', 'Leopardi', 'Lucero', 'Marian Mohr', 'Metauro', 'Micheline Charraire', 'Mt. Kosciusko', 'My Own', 'Mystery', 'Nanook', 'Nerva', 'Ningal', 'Santa Fe', 'Snow Shadow', 'Sophronia', 'Venus De Milo', 'Western Skies' 'Willoughbey'.

Kashmiriana crosses. Foster was uncertain of the parentage of the cross producing 'Kashmir White' and 'Miss Wilmott'. Although he believed that Iris kashmiriana was a parent, Geddes Douglas in AIS Bulletin #87, p.40-44 presents another view. F. Denis believed that Miss Wilmott came not from Iris kashmiriana but from a cross of I. cypriana and I. pallida 'Dalmatica'. He was able to synthesize his hypothesis by crossing I. cypriana X I. pallida and getting a goodly proportion of albinos. Since there is as yet no definitive proof either in favor of Denis's belief or Foster's we have chosen arbitrarily to go with Foster. These plants were at the base of most modern white tall-bearded lines and it would be interesting for someone to explore Iris kashmiriana further.

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Distribution and Cultivation

Distribution: Region:
Cultivation:

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

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-- Main.RPries - 2010-02-08