SCIENTIFIC NAME: Iris virginica shrevei
COMMON NAMES: Wild Blue Flag Iris, Southern Blue Flag Iris, Shreve's Iris, Virginia Iris, Blue Flag
BLOOM TIME: May, June, July
PLANT PROFILE:
- Plant of marshes and wet meadows.
- Grows 1-3 ft. tall on solid stems.
- Leaves are gray-green, sword-shaped, 20-40” long, & 3-4 leaves per stem.
- 4 in. wide beautiful flowers are pale blue violet to purple in color with yellow blotch on 3 drooping petal-like sepals & beardless.
- Grow in large outward expanding patches from rhizomes.
- Yellow color help distinguish from Northern Blue Flag.
- Grows 2-3 ft.. tall.
- Seed pods often pull stalk of plant over to ground as pod finishes maturing.
- Habitat: needs full sun & marshy areas to thrive, found in prairies, meadows along rivers, swamps, & ditches.
- Common in Illinois.
INSECT/ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
- The flowers are cross-pollinated by bumblebees & long-horned bees.
- Butterflies & skippers also visit the flowers occasionally.
- Some insects feed on Blue Flag Iris destructively. They include the weevil larvae feed on inside seed capsules, while Syrphid fly larvae & mealybug feed on the rhizomes.
- Caterpillars of the Virginia Ctenucha moth, Agreeable Tiger Moth, & Iris Borer Moth also feed on these plants.
- Mammalian herbivores rarely bother this plant because the foliage and rootstocks are somewhat toxic, causing irritation of the gastrointestinal tract.