Iris paradoxa

Description

Iris paradoxa is a species of flowering plant native to western Asia. It has large upright petals and smaller lower petals, which is unique amongst most iris forms. They come in various shades from white, lavender, mauve, medium purple, violet, dark purple to black. It has a black or purplish black beard on the lower petals. It comes from the region of Transcaucasia, and is found in the countries of Iran, (formerly Persia), Turkey, Armenia and in Azerbaijan. I. paradoxa is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial.The rhizomes are slender and usually less than 1 cm in diameter.It also has secondary roots underneath the rhizomes. It has greenish-gray,or blue-green leaves,that are recurved or falcate (sickle-like) shaped.They are narrow, between 2–4 mm (0–0 in) wide,and less than 4 cm long. The upright stem grows between 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long, and hold up to 2 blooms. It blooms in spring, or early summer,between April and June. The flowers are 10 cm in diameter, and come in various shades from white,lavender, mauve,medium purple, violet, dark purple to black. Like other irises, the flowers have 2 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or tepals, known as the 'standards'.Compared to other irises, the paradoxa or strangeness of the iris, is that in most forms of irises, the standards are smaller than the falls, but on I. paradoxa the falls are much smaller than the standards. The erect standards are broadly obovate, or rounded, and 5–9 cm (2–4 in) long and 3–3.6 cm (1–1 in) wide.They are a pale shade with pale blue or deep blue veining.The smaller falls are a darker colour, blackish-violet, through to pale purple densely overlaid with black-purple veins.They are 2.5–4 cm (1–2 in) long and 1–1.5 cm (0–1 in) wide. The falls are also covered with blackish,blackish-purple or violet hairs or 'beard' with a pale v-shaped mark in centre. After flowering, it becomes dormant in late summer. The seed capsule produced after flower has not been described.