''Iris henryi'' is a beardless rhizomatous

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (given name), a feminine given name, and a list of peopl ...

. It is in the genus ''

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (given name), a feminine given name, and a list of peopl ...

'', subgenus '' Limniris'' and in the series ''Chinenses'' of the genus, from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It has thin green leaves, short stem and light-blue, to creamy-white or pale yellow flowers.

Description

It is a small plant which makes foliage resembling a miniature '' Iris graminea'' (in ''Spuria'' section). The buds do not show up, and the flowers suddenly open up flat at the height of leaf tips. It has a thin, long rhizome. Each tuft of six or eight slender green leaves produces a single stem. The leaves can reach 20–25 cm in length and around 3 mm in width. They are visibly ribbed (3 raised ribs). The stem reaches up to 8 cm (4–6 inches) in height, with a single, two-flowered (bud) spathe. The spathe valves are entirely green when the flower is expanded, and though they are an inch or more in length, yet the pedicel (stem of the flower) is even longer, so that the ovary is exposed above the spathes. The perianth tube is very short at 4 mm long. The flower buds are yellow, but the flowers blooming in April, range from light-blue, to creamy-white or pale yellow. They are about 3 cm in diameter, and have a small yellow patch in the centre of the falls, which deepens to green on the haft, the outside of falls are yellow, shading to green in the lower half (the haft near the stem). The two flowers (on the double spathe) open together for about 4 days, the first flower lasting for about 10 days in good conditions. Capsules and seeds have not been seen or described. They are very difficult to cultivate into producing seed.

Taxonomy

It is known as ''chang bing yuan wei '' in

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

in China, which is translated into English as 'long-pedicel iris'. It was first published by

Baker A baker is a tradesperson who baking, bakes and sometimes Sales, sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient histo ...

in ''Handbook of the Irideae'' in August–November 1892. It was later published by Liu Yin in ''Chinese Magazine of Botany'' 3(2):591 in 1936. It was also published as ''Iris gracilipes'' by Renato Pampanini (Pamp). in ''Nuov. Gion. Bot. Ital.'' in 1915 (now classed as a synonym of ''Iris henryi''), Then in the ''Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society'' 42: 1, 78 in October 1916. It was named after an Irish plantsman and sinologist

Augustine Henry Augustine Henry (2 July 1857 – 23 March 1930) was a British-born Irish plantsman and sinologist. He is best known for sending over 15,000 dry specimens and seeds and 500 plant samples to Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom. By 1930, he was a re ...

Distribution and habitat

''Iris henryi'' is

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to China.

Range

In China, it is found within the

Chinese provinces Provinces ( zh, c=省, p=Shěng) are the most numerous type of province-level divisions in the People's Republic of China (PRC). There are currently 22 provinces administered by the PRC and one province that is claimed, but not administere ...

, of

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

and

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

. It is also found in the thick grasses on the hillsides of Kiai Chow, and near the middle

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

near

Yichang Yichang ( zh, s= ), Postal Map Romanization, alternatively romanized as Ichang, is a prefecture-level city located in western Hubei province, China. Yichang had a population of 3.92 million people at the 2022 census, making it the third most pop ...

Cultivation

It is best cultivated in a greenhouse, but it is susceptible to

mould A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi ...

if too dry or wet in winter, and it is also prone to

desiccation Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic (attracts and holds water) substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container. The ...

during the spring or summer.

References

Sources

* Mathew, B. 1981. The Iris. 79. * Waddick, J. W. & Zhao Yu-tang. 1992. Iris of China. * Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).

External links

Images of Iris henryi and Iris cristata
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15227595 henryi Endemic flora of China Flora of Anhui Flora of Gansu Flora of Hubei Flora of Hunan Flora of Sichuan Plants described in 1892