Iris spuria L.
Clumps very leafy, dark green. Rhizome 2-3 cm diam. Leaves c. 1 cm wide, < stems. Stems 60-90 cm high, unbranched. Flowers 2-3 or solitary, blue-purple, to 12 cm diam., shortly pedicelled; tube short; segments c. 5 cm long, outer with short orbicular blue limb, dark blue-veined, abruptly contracted to a much longer but narrower yellow claw, inner narrow-oblong, purple-blue. Style-branches pale violet, curved horizontally outwards. Capsule ovate, beaked.
N. Wellington - Manawatu, well established and spreading in some localities. Along roadsides.
(Europe, Asia, N. Africa)
First record: Matthews 1946: 217.
First collections: "Marton, damp roadside, W. J. Kissock, 21.1.1954; garden escape established in grass in damp places" (CHR 89511); and "Aorangi Rd near Rongotea Rd, Palmerston North," A. E. Esler, 9.11.1960 (MPN 1484).
FL. 11-12.
Stevens (The Iris and its Culture [1952] 86) notes "There is no one plant which can be exclusively called Iris spuria. There are many forms both in Europe and Asia, which are given the name, . . . The commonest form of I. spuria in New Zealand is a European one. This common form is often found naturalised along roadsides in New Zealand where it makes large groups."
