Iris versicolor (Blue Flag) - photos and description

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Origin: Native.

General: Erect plants with leaves growing in a fan-shaped, flat arrangement, leaves as tall as the flowering stems. Plants glabrous.

Flowers: Flowers very showy, violet to purple-blue, with yellow colouring on the outer perianth segments. Flowers are large measured to 9 cm wide, usually solitary. Flowers with a slight scent.

Leaves: Leaves sword-shaped, we measured a leaf to 100 cm tall and 35 mm wide.

Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 80 cm, we measured plants to 102 cm tall.

Habitat: Swamps, marshes and lakeshores in the parklands and boreal forest.

Abundance: This plant is extremely rare, ranked as an S1 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.

When and where photographed: The above photos were taken June 22nd, shores of a beaver swamp, in east central Saskatchewan.