Iris xiphium Desf. var. lusitanica (Ker-Gawl.) Franco

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘The flowers are scentless, expanding in June.  Agrees in habit and in everything, except in what is above mentioned, with Iris xiphium. Found by Clusius in rich spots, as well as on rocky hills, near the Tagus above Lisbon.

Quer, in his Flora Espagnol, makes Iris alata of Lamarck (his Xiphion I. and the Iris bulbosa latifolia, true I. of Clusius) a variety of Iris Xiphium ; though to all appearances no two species can be well more distinct; the first, with Iris (nobis Moreae) Sisyrinchium,we were anxious to have laid before the public, as species so well known to all the older Botanists and Gardeners, but which seem now entirely lost to our collections, for upon repeated searches and inquiries we can no where hear of their now being in this country; Parkinson remarks the difficulty of preserving the former (not enumerated in Hort. Kew. though the latter is) and attributes it to tenderness; which most probably has been the cause of the loss of both. The first is a native of Andalusia, growing in the woods on the Guadiana near Antequera and Cordova, and called by the Spaniards Lirio Espadagnal or Azul; the other is found near Lisbon, where the roots are said to be eaten under the name of Nozelhas; a lesser plant, supposed to be a variety of the last, is found in Valencia.

If, notwithstanding the information we have received, they should still exist in the collection of any friend to our attempts to illustrate this order of plants, we thould be highly obliged by the opportunity being afforded us of describing and figuring them.  Both were lately and perhaps still are cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Paris.’  [BM t.679/1803]. 

Introduced to Britain from Portugal in 1796.  [JD].

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [B.239/1843].  An early introduction to the garden, received per ‘Sovereign’ February 1831.  [MP A2948].

Notes