■ (SPEC) Iris tubergeniana Fos.

1899, Foster

Iris tubergeniana Foster. ( Sir Michael Foster, 1899, Tashkent, Turkestan); Subgenus Scorpiris, (Juno); Color Code-S4;

See below:

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

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References:

Foster provides the following description in The Gardeners' Chronicle 3rd Ser. 25: 225. 1899; "I have received from the firm of C. G. Van Tubergen, Junior., a little Iris, whose characters seem to justify specific distinction. It is allied to I. caucasica and I. orchioides, but differs from both. Bulb somewhat slender, with the ordinary characters of a bulb of a Juno Iris. Plant about 10 cm. High at flowering time, with one two, or more apparently sessile flowers. Leaves about six, each 6 to 8 cm. By 1 to 5 cm. At broadest, light glaucous green, pointed, conspicuously striated, and with a marked "cartilaginous" margin. Spathe valves 4 or 5 cm. Long, narrow pointed, not inflated, thin, but green, membranous at tip only. Fall about 4 cm. Long, rather more than 1 cm. At its broadest part. The claw bears lateral expansions, so that the whole fall is more or less fiddle-shaped. The fall possesses a median crest, which along some distance back from the extreme front is cut up into conspicuous filaments, 1 cm., or nearly so, in length, so that the crest becomes a linear beard. Standards minute, three-toothed, the median tooth being usually longest, stretched out horizontally. Style nearly 3 cm. Long by about 1 cm. Broad, with a conspicuous tongue-shaped stigma, and two large deltoid crests. Anthers large, pollen coarse and abundant. Ovary, rounded trigonal, rather more than 1 cm. Long; tube, three or more times as long as the ovary. The falls are bright yellow, especially the crest and beard, but with a slight tinge of green. As in I. orchioides, the blade of the fall is marked by a few scarce variable blackish-green streaks or dots. The styles are of a more distinctly greenish yellow. The plant, without being exceedingly handsome, is pleasing; flowering, as it does, nearly at the same time as the purple Iris reticulata, it supplies an agreeable contrast to these. In foliage and habit it resembles I. caucasica, though the leaves are more glaucous, and more distinctly striated. The flower is like that of orchioides, but differs in the claw having distinct lateral expansions (these are wholly absent in orchioides)[sic. the orchioides Foster knew was a yellow bucharica and not the true plant which is strongly winged] and in the crest, which in orchioides is often hardly even serrate (in caucasica it is very serrate), being cut up into a conspicuous linear beard. The two features seem to justify its being regarded as a distinct species. The conversion of the crest into a beard, though useful in this case for specific distinction, is one of many instances showing how little value can be attached to the possession or lack of a beard or crest as a fundamental character, and so a means of forming large groups of Irises."
The Garden 66: 8. 2 July 1904, (Yellow Juno in Figure)
Khassanov, F.O. & Rakhimova, N. (2012). Taxonomic revision of the genus Iris L. (Iridaceae Juss.) for the flora of central Asia. Stapfia 97: 174-179.
Grull. 1907; Van T. 1909;
A.M., R.H.S. 1901, shown by Will.; Hort. Dir. 43: 54. 1902; Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 26: lxv. 26 Feb. 1901, illustrated; Hort. Dir. 43: 54. 1902; (a bulbous Iris with a beard);
Dykes in The Genus Iris, 1913 Description. Rootstock , a rather slender bulb of the ordinary Juno type. *Leaves* , with distinctly horny ciliated margin, 6 in number, conspicuously striated, acuminate, of a light glaucous green. Stem , very short, 2-4 in., producing 1-3 sessile flowers. Spathes , acuminate, light green, with scarious tips, about 2 10. long. Pedicel , very short. Ovary, cylindrical. Tube , 1-2 in. long. Falls, 2 in. long, with lateral expansions or wings: of a bright and yet transparent yellow except on the blade, where the colour is opaque. There may be olive green markings along the centre of the haft and on the blade. The haft bears a yellow central ridge tipped with olive green, which as it emerges on to the blade breaks up into hair-like filaments. The tip is an undivided crest of yellow. Standards, very small, depressed, with a median tooth longer than the lateral tips. Styles , of the same transparent yellow colour. Crests , rather narrow, triangular. Stigma , conspicuous, oblong. Filaments , transparent, yellow. Anthers , yellow. Pollen , orange. Capsule , narrow, oblong, with thin membranous walls. Seeds, globular, resembling those of I. caucasica and I. Willmottiana. Observations. I. Tubergeniana is obviously allied to I. caucasica, but the leaves are more glaucous and more distinctly striated. In colour it is very similar to I. orchioides, from which it is easily separated by the lateral expansions on the falls, and by the crest that splits up into hair-like threads. It is unfortunately not a robust species, and it seems to be dying out of cultivation.
Komarov, V.L. (ed.) (1935). Flora SSSR 4: 1-586. Izdatel'stov Akademii Nauk SSSR, Leningrad.
Innes, C. (1985). The World of Iridaceae: 1-407. Holly Gare International Ltd., Ashington.

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Synonyms

Tashkent Iris; Iris caucasica, Regel (1883).

Juno tubergeniana (Foster) Vved., Fl. Uzbekistan. 1: 520 (1941). ----

Chromosome counts

2n=22 Bochantseva 1966; 2n=20, Hall, 2000. ----

Variations

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Hybrids

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Distribution and Cultivation

Distribution: Region: Turkestan, where it was discovered by Mr van Tubergen's collector in the mountains near Tashkent. The exact locality has not been disclosed.-Dykes 1913
Cultivation: seems to be the same as most bearded irises with perhaps a special emphasis on good drainage

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-- BobPries - 2010-04-21