(SPEC) Iris kingiana Foster

1887, Foster

Iris kingiana (Sir Michael Foster, 1887) Now relegated to a synonym of Iris Kemaonensis Originally described in "Some New Irises", The Gardeners' Chronicle I. p.611. Then described in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, table 6957, 1887 as "This very interesting new species was discovered by Mr. Duthie, in his recent exploration of British Garwhal, and was first cultivated by Professor Foster, and named by him after Dr. George King, Director of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. It comes about midway between I. pumila and I. tectorum, and forms a connecting link between the
sub-genera Pogoniris and Evansia, in the former of which the claw of the outer segments is furnished with a beard, and in the latter with a more or less laciniated crest. Our drawing was made from a plant that flowered in the Kew collection at the end of May this present year.
Description. Bootstoch short-creeping. Leaves five or six to a rosette, three elongated, linear, erect, rather glaucous, about half a foot long at the flowering time; veins and edges hyaline. Peduncle very short. Spathes single-flowered; valves lanceolate, greenish, unequal, the innermost one and a half or two inches long. Perianth-tube greenish, cylindrical, two or two and a half inches long ; limb bright lilac ; outer segments obovate-cuneate, reflexing, an inch and a half long, dark lilac, much mottled with paler lilac, furnished with a beard down the claw composed of white filaments with a yellow glandular tip, springing from a depressed white crest; inner segments oblong-unguiculate, erect, paler lilac. Style an inch long, including the short deltoid crests, lilac in the middle, paler towards the edge. Anther whitish-lilac, as long as the filament. — J. G. Baker.

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-- BobPries - 2011-03-07