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Iris virginica
Also called Southern Blue Flag, Virginia Blue Flag, Blue Flag, Wild Iris, Blue Flag Iris
Iris virginica is a North American perennial iris that grows from rhizomes in wet ground, with blue to blue-violet flowers in May to July. It thrives in consistently moist soil and full sun or part shade, often at pond or bog edges.
Iris virginica, with the common name Virginia blueflag, Virginia iris, great blue flag, or southern blue flag, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the Iridaceae (iris) family, native to central and eastern North America.
It was identified as a separate species by Edgar Anderson, and is one of the three Iris species in Anderson's Iris flower data set, used by Ronald Fisher in his 1936 paper "The use of multiple measurements in taxonomic problems" as an example of linear discriminant analysis.
Iris virginica is native in the United States from Nebraska to the west, Florida and Texas to the south, New York to the east, and the Canadian border to the north. In Canada, it is native in Ontario and Quebec. It grows in wet areas, sometimes in shallow water, including marshes, wet meadows, swamps, river bottoms, sloughs, ditches, bottomland prairies, edges of sinkhole ponds, and in shallow water.
The Cherokee use this medicinal plant for traditional medicinal uses. The root is pounded into a paste that is used as a salve for the skin. An infusion made from the root is used to treat ailments of the liver, and a decoction of the root is used to treat "yellowish urine".
Iris acutiloba subsp. lineolata · Iris acutiloba · Iris adriatica · Iris afghanica · Iris alberti · Iris albomarginata · Iris alexeenkoi · Single Bract Iris · Iris antilibanotica · Stool iris · Iris arenaria · Iris assadiana
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Iris virginica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
