Iris Tourn. ex L.

Overview

Iris belongs to the iris family, Iridaceae; Kew gives its native range as the temperate Northern Hemisphere to the Philippines. The cut iris is mainly Dutch iris, Iris × hollandica, which WCVP accepts as a hybrid. The RHS describes Dutch types as about 60 cm tall in flower, with unobtrusive grassy leaves and flowers in yellow, blue, purple, white and bicolours, and more reliable than the 15 cm, early-flowering I. reticulata, especially on well-drained soil.

The plate above is I. xiphium, the Spanish iris, from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, plate 686 (1803); WCVP records it as native to the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, Italy and north-west Africa.

Classification and naming

Linnaeus published the genus in Species Plantarum in 1753. WCVP takes a broad view, including Belamcanda, Hermodactylus, Juno and others (see below): the blackberry lily used in Chinese medicine is now Iris domestica, which WCVP records as native from China, Japan and Korea to the Himalaya and South-East Asia.

Distribution

WCVP records the genus as native to 166 TDWG botanical regions and introduced in 23 more.

Introduced

Andaman Is.Argentina NortheastCanary Is.Cape VerdeCook Is.CubaCyprusDominican RepublicEl SalvadorLeeward Is.New CaledoniaNew South WalesNew Zealand NorthPuerto RicoRéunionSouth AustraliaTasmaniaTongaTrinidad-TobagoVenezuelaVictoriaWestern AustraliaWindward Is.

Accepted species

WCVP accepts 348 species; names with × are natural hybrids. The count changes with revisions; checked 2026-10-24.

Historic plates

Plates in date order; the printed names are kept as they appear, current names are on the species pages and the topic page.

• 

  Iris Xiphium

  Curtis's Botanical Magazine · 686 · 1803
  Sydenham Edwards
• 

  Iris Fœtidissima

  Les Liliacées · 351 · 1812
  Pierre-Joseph Redouté
• 

  Iris ruthenica

  The Botanical Cabinet · 1650 · 1831
  George Loddiges
• 

  Iris pumila

  Favourite Flowers of Garden and Greenhouse · Pl. 254 · 1897
  

Growing and cut-flower handling

The RHS advises planting bulb irises in a sunny spot with well-drained soil as soon as possible after purchase, at least 5–7.5 cm apart; planting up to 15 cm deep helps them flower more reliably the next year.

Floralife says cut irises are normally harvested at the “pencil stage”, when a line of colour projects from the sheathing leaves; when buying, make sure the flower tips are not curled or dried, or the bloom won’t open. Store at 1–3 °C and 75–85% relative humidity; vase life is 3–9 days and ethylene sensitivity is low. Keep them cool, away from draughts, radiators and direct sun, as the warmer the room the shorter the vase life; in foam they are short-lived and prone to leaf yellowing, so keep the foam well soaked, and a bulb flower food maintains the foliage. The ASPCA lists iris as toxic to dogs, cats and horses, with pentacyclic terpenoids most concentrated in the rhizomes.

Further reading

• Flower guide
• Reference library

References

1. WCVP · World Checklist of Vascular Plants (via ChecklistBank dataset 2232) · accessed 2026-10-24
2. Kew (POWO data on the ColPlanta site) · Iris native range
3. RHS · How to grow bulb irises
4. Floralife · Iris care and handling
5. ASPCA Animal Poison Control · Iris