Purdy’s iris –Iris purdyi

Range: Northern California’s western Coast Range between Sonoma and Trinity counties, to about 3,000 feet elevation.

Original material: Ukiah, Mendocino County, California  1897. Named by Alice Eastwood, after Carl Purdy of Ukiah, a collector and nurseryman, who first called attention to it as a unique species.

Key identifying features:

1. Large, flattish flowers with broad, spreading petals and sepals.
2. Stigma truncate or even bilobed (not triangular).
3. Short, inflated, overlapping bract-like leaves enclose the stem, only the tips are free.
4. Long, funnel-shaped floral tube, 1¼ to 2½ inches.
5. Spathes are very broad, enclose the ovary and most of the perianth tube.

Flower color: White, cream or soft yellow, sometimes tinged purple, usually with prominent reddish-brown or purple veins on petals.

Habitat: Thick, humid leaf litter on the moderately shaded forest floor, surrounded by redwood, Douglas fir, tan oak, madrone, bay and other mixed evergreen trees.

Comments: The large, flattish (“starfish-like”) flowers makeIris purdyi one of the more easily recognized of the Pacific Coast Iris. It is the only PCI with a truncate, non-triangular stigma, and appears less closely related to the other species of the long-tube group.

Mature plants grow as individuals or in loose, open clumps.

In much of its range, where it has crossed with other wild iris, the hybrids often don’t have the look of pureI. purdyi. The broad, flat flowers of plants in unmixed stands tend to be mostly white or cream color with pale or prominent reddish brown veins. Along the coast nearIris douglasiana, or inland nearIris macrosiphon, the veins are often purple and the petals may have a maroon, purple or lavender wash.