Iridaceae

Flowers on the field

Plate: drawing and observations

• 70 genera and about 1800 species.

• Perennial herbs or subshruds (underground storage organs of rhizomes, bulbs or corns.

• Leaves sheath at the base, overlapping each other transversely to form a flat fan-like arrangement (equitant) unique to this family.

• Venation is parallel.

• Fruit type is a loculicidal capsule.

• 3 sepals of flowers

• Bisexual flower with 3 stamens and a single pistil.

• Inferior ovary composed od 3 fused carpels.

• Irises are closer to asparagus than lilies.

• Locule open and free of cellular tissue.

Sources

• Botanique, systématique moléculaire, Guignard and Dupont (2005)

• The Science behind Flowers, Dick Rauh (2020), p. 36.

• Botany Illustrated. Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families, by Janice Glimn-Lacy and Peter B. Kaufman (2006), p.129

• French wikipedia page: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(genre_vegetal)

• Susannah Graedel's plate.