Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Monocots: Asparagales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (10/20/20):
Iris virginica
FAMILY
Iridaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
This is the most common tall iris in NC and is usually the species one thinks of when "iris" is mentioned. Plants of the Mountains and western Piedmont are now assigned to I. shrevei. Read more Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Iris virginica var. virginica
FAMILY
Iridaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN Flora of North America
Iris virginica
INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 046-05-002:
Iris virginica FAMILY Iridaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Iris virginica var. virginica
COMMON NAME:
Southern Blue Flag
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
)
JK Marlow jkm090522_001
May Bamberg County SC
Lisa Matthews Memorial Bay
)
Jerry Bright jeb_greenswamp062808_24
June Brunswick County NC
Green Swamp
)
JK Marlow jkm081009_319
October Bamberg County SC
Lisa Matthews Memorial Bay
Iris leaves have two morphologically and anatomically identical surfaces, per Plant Systematics, A Phylogenetic Approach (Judd et al., 2008+).
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (10/20/20):
Iris virginica
FAMILY
Iridaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Iris virginica var. virginica
FAMILY
Iridaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN
Flora of North America
Iris virginica
INCLUDED WITHIN
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 046-05-002:
Iris virginica
FAMILY
Iridaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Iris virginica var. virginica
765
Forb
Perennial
Habitat: Tidal and nontidal marshes and swamps, stream margins, flatwoods, wet meadows, bogs, per Weakley's Flora
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Click here to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
Click here to see a map showing all occurrences known to SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria. (Zoom in to see more detail.)
LEAVES:
Simple
FLOWER:
Spring
Lavender, blue-violet
Bisexual
Radially symmetrical
3 sepals
3 petals
3 stamens
Inferior ovary
FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Capsule
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- All About South Carolina Wildflowers (Midgley, 1999) p185
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Wildflowers (Nelson, 2006) p060
- Gardening with Native Plants of the South (Wasowski & Wasowski, 1994, 2020) p151
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002) p142
- Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers (Campbell, Hutson, Sharp, & Hutson, 1962) p026
- Wildflowers of the Carolina Lowcountry (Porcher, 1995) p123
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999) p172
- Wild Flowers of NC, 2nd edition (Justice, Bell, & Lindsey, 2005) p043
- Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Georgia (Chafin, 2016) p385
- Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005) p388
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005) p444
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998) p019
- Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region (Sorrie, 2011) p289