Iris xiphium L.

Horticultural & Botanical History

Introduced to Britain in 1596.  It is one parent of the Dutch iris.  [JD, Lynch]. 

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine gives some insights into the probable origin of the latter.  ‘A native of Spain, growing, according to Clusius, in the country about Valladolid, to Quer (who by the bye speaks of a plant with white outer laminae) in the green-oak woods of both the Castiles; Desfontaines tells us he found it in Algiers; but it remains to be ascertained if he means the precise species we are now describing.  It is perfectly hardy and propagates rapidly by offsets, of which it produces abundance; cultivated here in 1633, by Gerarde.

The best roots are said to be those annually imported by the seedsmen from Holland.  There are many varieties of it, but not so many as are usually supposed; on this head we shall however defer our observations till we have an opportunity of further confirmation; we suspect many of them to be hybrids between xiphioides, lusitanica, juncea, our present plant [Iris xiphium], and perhaps also alata, and probably yet more perfectly distinct species.’  [BM t.686/1803].  

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [B.260/1843].  ‘Spanish Iris’ is recorded as received per ‘Sovereign’ February 1831.  [MP A2948].

Notes

Iris xiphium Georgi = Iris rossii Bak.

Iris xiphium Jacq. = Iris xiphioides Ehrh. which see.

Iris xiphium Desf. (1798) = Iris fontanesii Godr.