PACIFIC COAST NATIVE IRIS
Unique species (3)

2. Siskiyou iris   Iris bracteata

Colin Rigby, 1993

Range: Southern Oregon and nearby California in the Siskiyou Mountains.

Original material: Waldo, Josephine County, Oregon 1884

Key identifying features:

1. Stems mostly encased with short green or brown overlapping bract-like leaves
2. Flower tube short (around ¼ inch) and stout
3. Leaves broad (½ inch), thick, stiff and distinctly two-sided
4. Base of leaves and stalk usually tinted pink to reddish-brown

Flower color: Large cream to golden-yellow flowers, marked with reddish-brown lines. A deep golden zone often seen in center of petal.

Habitat: Found in shaded sites in dry pine forest, or in meadows in the shade of large shrubs or bracken ferns.

Comment: Produces hybrids with I. chrysophylla, I. douglasiana and I. innominata where their ranges overlap.

Additional Photo [Opens in a new window. Close to return].
• Wild Iris bracteata, growing near Cave Junction, Oregon.

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