The term "Japanese iris" encompasses three species of Irises cultivated in gardens or growing wild in Japan: ''hanashōbu'' ('' Iris ensata''), ''kakitsubata'' ('' Iris laevigata'') and ''ayame'' (''

Iris sanguinea ''Iris sanguinea'' is a rhizome, rhizomatous flowering plant in the genus ''Iris (plant), Iris'' and in the series ''Iris ser. Sibiricae, Sibiricae''. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperateness, temperate regions. It is one of the s ...

''). Of these three species, ''I. ensata'' is the one most commonly referred to as "Japanese iris" outside Japan. The bluish purple color of the flowers of the Japanese garden iris is an example of the copigmentation phenomenon.

''Hanashōbu''

The grows in the wet land and is the most extensively cultivated variety in Japanese gardens. According to the place where it was cultivated, it is classified into the Edo (Tokyo), Higo (Kumamoto Prefecture), Ise (Mie Prefecture), American (U.S.) and other series. It is extensively grown in gardens throughout the temperate zones. Several

cultivars A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue cult ...

have been selected, of which 'Rose Queen' and 'Variegata' have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

''Kakitsubata''

The grows in the semi-wet land and is less popular, but is also cultivated extensively. It is a prefectural flower of

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

due to the famous ''

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...

'' poem which is said to have been written in this area during the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, as it appears in ''

The Tales of Ise is a Japanese '' uta monogatari'', or collection of '' waka'' poems and associated narratives, dating from the Heian period. The current version collects 125 sections, with each combining poems and prose, giving a total of 209 poems in most vers ...

'' by

Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and '' waka'' poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the '' Ogura Hyakunin Isshu'' collection. He ...

(note that the beginning syllables are "ka-ki-tsu-ha (ba)-ta"): ''Kakitsubata'' at Ōta Shrine,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, is a National Natural Treasure. It was already recorded in a ''

'' by Fujiwara Toshinari also in the

''Ayame''

The is the iris typically growing wild on the dry land in Japan.

Characteristics

Note: Sweet flag, called ''shōbu'' () in Japanese, is a plant belonging to the family Acoraceae, genus ''

Acorus ''Acorus'' is a genus of monocot flowering plants. This genus was once placed within the family Araceae (aroids), but more recent classifications place it in its own family Acoraceae and order Acorales, of which it is the sole genus of the oldes ...

'', known for its fragrant roots, rather than its flowers.

References

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External links