Iris kuschakewiczii

From Kazakhstan Encyclopedia

Template:Italic titleTemplate:Taxobox

Iris kuschakewiczii (also commonly known as ) is a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus of Scorpiris. It is a bulbous perennial.

It was originally published as 'Iris kuschakewiczi' by Boris Fedtschenko in 'Bull. Jard. Bot. Petersb.' v. 158 (Bulletin of St. Petersburg Botanical Garden) in 1905.[1]

In 1958, Petr Petrovich Poljakov re-published it as 'Juno kuschakewiczii' in Fl. Kazakhst. 2: 249.[2]

In 1939, it was suggested this was a form of Iris narynensis, but when Mathew published "The Iris" in 1981, he retained it as a separate species.[3]

Iris kuschakewiczii is now an accepted name by the RHS.[4]

It was named after a Russian botanist 'A. A. Kuschakewicz' who worked with N. J. Korolkov in 1872,[5] and Boris Fedtschenko in 1873.[6] A. A. Kuschakewicz collected many plants in Turkestan and Central Asia.[7]

It is mentioned in D.J. Mabberley portable plant books of 1997.[8][9]

It is fairly easy to grow in cultivation, within an alpine house or bulb frame,[10] it does not need much moisture in summer.[11] It can be grown outside in a sheltered, sunny raised bed with well drained soils.[12][13]

Habit

Iris kuschakewiczii has bulb 1.5 cm (in diameter),[14] with a paper tunic-coating. It has thickened storage roots, close to the base.[10][15]

It grows up to a height of between Template:Convert, including the flower.[3][11][13] It has a thick stem, which is between 3–5 cm long, hidden by the leaves, unbranched with 1-4 flowers.[10][12][14][15] The blooms appear in April–May[10][14]

The non-scented flowers appear above a perianth tube of 3.5-4.5 cm long.[10][14][15] The flowers come in various shades of purple, from greenish purple,[15] pale violet,[3][13][14] violet-blue,[12] to lilac blue.[10] The (3.5–4 cm long)[10] falls have very dark violet blotches and lines on either side of a prominent white crest,[3][12][13][15] or white signal patch.[10] The blades are oblong-obvate shaped (about 1.2 x 0.7 cm).[10][14] The standards are 1 – 1.5 cm long (often 3 lobed shaped).[10][14][15] The flowers measure approx. 6.5–8 cm in diameter.[13]

The bracts and bracteole are green with membranous tips and margins.[10]

The fruits appear in late spring-early summer.[15]

It has 4-5 dark green glaucous leaves which gradually taper to the apex,[14][15] (falcate),[10] They are clustered together at the base,[10] and are 1-1.5 cm wide (close to the base).[10][13][14][15] They also have a contrasting white edge or margin.[10][13]

Native

In 1905, Iris kuschakewiczii was found in Turkestan,[3] on the northern foothills of the Tien Shan Mountains of Central Asia.[10][11][13][14]

It can be found on gravelly and rocky slopes, on the red-clay hills of Kazakhstan (on the north-western spurs of the Tien Shan).[14][15]

It is also found in the Ala Archa National Park (25 km from the capital of Bishkek) of Kyrgyzstan.[16]

References

Template:Reflist

External links

Template:Commons category-inline Template:Wikispecies-inline
Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found