Sierra iris
Pale yellow, low in the dry grass, and it grows nowhere outside California.
In brief
Iris hartwegii, Iridaceae.
- Perennial from a rhizome
- Endemic to California
- Flowers April to June
- Fruit a three-parted capsule
Where it grows
Dry open pine and oak woodland through the Sierra Nevada foothills, on slopes instead of in wet ground. It is one of the irises that wants a dry summer, and watering it in July is how it dies.
When it blooms
April to June. Photographed here on May 8, 2023, with more buds standing behind the open flowers.
Seed and fruit
A three-parted capsule. It spreads as much by the rhizome as by seed, which is why it comes in clumps.
Here
Pale cream-yellow and low to the ground, on a plant whose leaves read as grass for the other eleven months of the year.
The falls stand out and down instead of up, and there is no beard on them. That is the difference between the wild irises here and a bearded iris in a garden bed.
By Yggdrasil Springs
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