Like other Iridomyrmex species, the meat ant is an omnivore, retrieving food sources from various insects it tends, including caterpillars and various sorts of butterflies, particularly the larvae of the Waterhouse's hairstreak (Jalmenus lithochroa). Meat ants usually feed on honeydew from sap-sucking insects, flower nectar, sugar and other sweet substances. In captive colonies, workers prefer to consume small pieces of grapes rather than honey solutions and other sweet foods. These ants prey on various insects and animals, collecting both live and dead invertebrates and acquire meat from dead vertebrates. Insects the meat ants prey on include giant lacewings, which they swarm up trees to kill, the butterfly genoveva azure Ogyris genoveva, Indian mealmoths, almond moths, the Western Australian jarrah leafminer and the larvae of the wasp Trichogramma. Large and developed larvae of the cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) are attacked more effectively by meat ant workers than those of other Iridomyrmex species. On sandy beaches, this species is observed preying on the polychaete annelid worm, Armandia intermedia, causing high mortality rates on them (rates of 30 percent). These ants will feed on a number of dead or alive animals, including metamorphic crucifix toads, snakes, lizards, and birds. On some occasions, swarms of workers have been found on dead foxes. The meat ant is the only known ant in Australia that feeds on fresh guano. The collection of guano by a nearby meat ant colony shows the opportunistic nature of the species. Observations show that trails of workers in groups of two to four were found collecting the guano under an active bat roost within an abandoned mine and proceeded to return it to the nest. The collection of guano by any Australian ant colony was never recorded prior to these observations, but it is unknown why meat ants collect fresh guano.
Meat ants are among the very few native species of Australia that are not harmed by the toxins of the cane toad, an invasive species. Most of the time, foraging workers target metamorph toads. Observations show that workers would forage around ponds and seize any toadlet. This normally starts with a single worker making contact with an individual and tracing its movements, followed by three or four workers capturing it. All the participating ants would grab a limb and sever the legs, returning the prey item back to their nest. Most of the time these tactics do not work. For example, most toadlets are able to escape the ants by displaying aversion-like behaviour; an individual may escape by struggling erratically or forcing the ants to release their grip by returning to the water. This aversion behaviour leads to most toadlets remaining in the water or staying on objects such as water lilies, pieces of bark that the ants cannot access, or moving around on moist substrates. It is unknown if meat ant predation on the toadlets affected the population, but based on the population density of the toadlets within the studied site and the foraging time and efficiency, approximately 2,700 toadlets could be removed per day. As the toadlet population density is extremely high, the impact of meat ant predation is minor. However, the survivability of the toadlets may be affected if the ants prevent the toadlets from foraging into many areas of moist substrate.
Water is an important resource for colonies living in dry and arid environments, but sometimes it may not be available. To counter this, workers are able to extract a significant amount of water from the sand with 2%–4% water content and 4% from the soil. Meat ants are unable to retrieve as much water from the soil, whereas with sand they are able to attain a greater amount of water; however, the soil contains a wide variety of particles, including clay and coarse sand, which causes water to be bound firmly. Ants may retrieve it by digging or directly suck on the soil itself at a low metabolic cost. This may be an evolved response based on tested ants, but no observations show meat ants doing this. Meat ants are known to dig into moist soil to gain access to water or where water has been spilt, either if the site is nearby their nest or far away.


Despite their dominance among ants, a number of animals are known to prey on meat ants. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is a prominent predator of the meat ant, mostly due to the high fat levels (up to 47%) in virgin queens. These queens can almost contain 47% fat, and when no queens are available after an attack, an echidna may stop attacking the nest. However, these ants are normally consumed either in low numbers or avoided entirely. Attacking echidnas burrow down into the hole they have made and consume them while handling the bites from the ants, as they frequently scratch themselves on the head and chest. The echidna does not consume meat ants throughout the whole year; instead, echidnas only attack meat ant nests from August to October, which is when nuptial flight (meaning that virgin queens and males emerge to mate) occurs. This time period makes it much easier for echidnas to prey on the winged females since they are directly above on the nest. Despite attacks, colony growth is not affected by echidnas.
Several birds prey on meat ants. The masked woodswallow (A. personatus) and the white-browed woodswallow (Artamus superciliosus) will gather around meat ant nests and swoop at them, catching several ants before eating them. Pieces of meat ants have been found in the faeces of the red-capped robin (Petroica goodenovii), rufous whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris), hooded robin (Melanodryas cucullata) and the red-browed treecreeper (Climacteris erythrops). Meat ants that forage on Ventilago viminalis trees are often eaten by the apostlebird. Some large ground-feeding birds, such as currawongs, magpies and ravens dig out newly established colonies after a queen has found a suitable spot to nest. Small domes of excavated soil are present at such spots, revealing the queens' presence to these birds. As a result, many queens are consumed by birds, leaving many abandoned nest chambers.
The blind snake Ramphotyphlops nigrescens follow trails laid by meat ants to locate them, and the snakes are also known to feed on the brood. Various species of spiders prefer to prey on meat ants, mainly attracted by the alarm pheromone the ants release. One spider, in particular, the cursorial spider Habronestes bradleyi, is a specialist predator against these ants and uses their alarm pheromones that are released during territorial disputes to locate them. These alarm signals are created by oscillating the body along the longitudinal axis, which are mostly released when an ant encounters a nest mate.
Cyclotorna monocentra moths feed on meat ant broods. The larvae of these moths are parasites to leafhoppers and will move to meat ant colonies to complete their development, where they will proceed to consume the brood; the females lay many eggs near ant trails which are close to the leafhoppers tended by ants. Other observations show that the Iphierga macarista larvae are scavengers in meat ant nests, while Sphallomorpha beetles live in burrows near nests of meat ants, where the larvae capture and prey on workers passing by. The larvae of the spitfire sawfly and Pseudoperga guerini are able to regurgitate a fluid against the meat ant if they are getting attacked by them; depending on how much is regurgitated, an ant will either walk away and clean itself or become fatally affected by it. Lizards such as the thorny dragon, which is a sit and wait predator, consume meat ants, but other lizards which eat Iridomyrmex ants usually reject this species.


Nuptial flight usually occurs during spring, in October. Reproductive females only mate with a single male and begin establishing their own colonies afterwards. Nuptial flight occurs after rain, where the males emerge from their nest first, followed by the virgin queens; groups of 20 to 40 females emerge after the males have flown away. The alates (the reproductive males and females) position themselves on top of the nest in order to heat themselves, and all fly at the same time once they are warm. This process may happen multiple times unless the weather had changed, otherwise, the queens would return to their nest. Nuptial flight may continue for days until all virgin queens have withdrawn from the nest. Most of the time, a single queen will start her own colony and lay eggs that will take around 44 to 61 days to fully develop and emerge as adults, but colonies can also be founded through multiple queens cooperating with each other, adoption into an existing colony, or "budding" (also called "satelliting" or "fractionating"), where a subset of the colony including queens, workers and brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) leave the main colony for an alternative nest site. Around 10% of queens will have at least another queen with them during colony foundation. Many queens are killed during colony founding; major aspects include predation by birds and other ants, even those of the same species, due to the fact they attempt to establish their nests near large colonies. However, some queens are successful, sometimes with the assistance of neighbouring workers, who help the queen dig some chambers. Other causes of queen deaths include disease and starvation. A queen's ovaries may take four weeks to mature, and she lays around 20 eggs that may develop into larvae in less than a month. Workers have been observed laying eggs, presumably trophic eggs. The function of these unfertilised eggs are nutritional, not reproduction.
The number of individuals in a colony varies. A mature nest of several years old can hold between 11,000 and 64,000 ants, while other colonies can house around 300,000. In some cases, enormous colonies can have as many as a million ants. Observed colonies are known to contain nearly 70,000 larvae and 64,000 workers; some can have 20,000 males and over 1,000 virgin queens, but others may have more virgin queens than males. The ratio of worker ants to the number of the larvae in colonies ranges from one worker for every two larvae or two larvae for every worker. The population of a nest can be affected or altered by several factors: human interference can severely damage or completely destroy nests which potentially devastates the nest population, and overshadowing is the main cause of a nest's demise. As well as that, neighbouring nests may increase in population if damaged or abandoned sites are taken over. Meat ants also rely on their nests to withstand climatic stress in summer and winter, as foraging activity and food sources are sometimes limited in summer, and in winter plant growth is almost impossible and workers are unable to survive cold temperatures. As a result, meat ants overwinter, which is a process where some organisms wait out the winter season due to cold conditions making everyday activity and survivability almost impossible; populations may be affected greatly.
Most colonies are monogyne, meaning that a colony only has a single queen, but based on observations, some nests contain more than a single queen. Some nests are known to contain two queens, with some even having as many as four in a single colony, making them polygynous; a high proportion of queens living in polygynous nests are unrelated to one another. Some colonies are oligogynous, which means that multiple queens are present in a colony, but they are tolerated by all workers birthed from different queens and treated equally. Tolerance still occurs even when new reproductive females and males are born, but recognition based on kin from queens and workers is known, hinting brood discrimination when the larvae are fed or groomed; queens will only take care of their own brood and neglect to look after broods laid by other queens. The queens, on the other hand, will only cooperate with each other during nest founding, but will be antagonistic once there are workers present in the colony. Queens become more intolerant of each other as the colony grows, and eventually separate within the nest, resulting in the queen laying more eggs. Such cases usually happen when pleometrotic founding occurs, or if a queen ant is adopted by a colony, setting up aggressive relationships. Physical fights between queens in the same colony are rare.
As most meat ant colonies rarely have a second queen, polydomy is not always associated with polygyny, although the two are frequently associated with each other because polygynous colonies reproduce by budding. This means that the ecological factors that promote polydomy and polygny both differ. Studies show that most meat ants are produced by a single, inseminated queen due to the high level of relatedness in all but one tested colonies. Colonies that are not closely related are the result of colony fusion (meaning that two unrelated and separate colonies form a single entity). Meat ants also show nest fidelity: in polydomous colonies, workers from different nests will always mingle with others from different nests but never return to a nest they do not originate from. Instead, they return to the nest they enclosed in. This means that colonies may only homogenise through brood transfer. As discussed before, nestmates from different nests will always be aggressive towards each other, but this is due to a number of factors: genetic and spatial distance in nests can correlate with the level of aggression exhibited by the ants. However, they exhibit more aggression to ants of different species from adjoining territories. They are also aggressive to conspecific ants from distant colonies, suggesting that environmental cues play a vital role in nestmate recognition. An example is that background odours in a particular environment may impair ants from identifying their own nestmates, and may need to make more attempts to determine an ant's identity.


Meat ants are highly territorial and aggressive ants which establish firm borders between neighbouring colonies. While the boundaries are not physical, worker ants maintain them by engaging in ritualised fighting with opponent ants, an interaction most colonies engage in. Fatalities are rare on both sides, but fights may cause injuries to several workers. This fighting enables territory to be contested between opposing colonies without them killing each other and costing many casualties on both sides. Because of this, it is a method of avoiding casualties and promotes intercolony communication and assessment. A drainage of the work force would occur if these boundaries acted as a conflict zone if ritualised fighting did not take place. Lethal fighting only occurs if the colony is under attack.
Encounters between workers last for 15 seconds. Ritualised fighting only occurs with two worker ants who come into contact with each other, but if both ants are from the same colony, they break contact and groom themselves. Afterwards they walk around until they make contact with another ant. A meat ant detects a foreign worker by intense antennation (the act of touching with the antennae) and gaping of the mandibles, and stretch themselves upward to appear taller and larger, suggesting that meat ants will do this in a display of size-matching. Workers perform a behaviour known as "front leg boxing"; both workers have their front legs sweeping up and down, where it would flex at the coxal joint in a paddling motion. This paddling motion is aimed at each other during the fight, going on for three to five seconds on average. From this point on, this would determine who is a "loser" and who is the "winner".
The ant who lost the ritual fight will lower its body, and lean sideways from the victorious ant. The victorious ant will remain raised upward and reach down to the worker and open its mandibles wider, grasping on the opponent's mandibles, and then tug and shake its head slightly for a few moments. However, the fight may continue if neither worker backs down, and will commence a side to side posture. Both ants circle each other and present their gasters directed to their opponent, and on some occasions, either one or both of the ants would kick outward using their legs at each other. Eventually, they will break contact and groom once appeasement has been reached and continue to search for another ant.


Meat ants have been observed blocking banded sugar ant nesting holes with pebbles and soil to prevent them from leaving their nest during the early hours of the day. Banded sugar ants counter this by preventing meat ants from leaving their nest by blocking their nesting holes with debris, a behaviour known as nest-plugging. If meat ant nests are encroached by trees or other shade, banded sugar ants may invade and take over the nest, since the health of the colony may deteriorate from overshadowing. Members of an affected meat ant colony later move to a nearby satellite nest that is placed in a suitable area, while invading banded sugar ants fill nest galleries up with a black resinous material. Meat ants sometimes attract cats because of the chemicals they secrete (dihydronepetalactone, isodihydronepetalactone and iridomyrmecin).
Meat ants are generally intolerant of myrmecophiles (which are insects or other organisms that share positive interspecies associations with ants) living in their colonies, but Cyclotorna larvae are known to dwell in colonies. Although Sphallomorpha larvae sometimes prey on workers as discussed earlier, some are inquilines and live in the nest commensally. Unused or abandoned areas inside colonies are sometimes occupied by other species of ants and in some cases, termites. Meat ants may deliberately destroy the colonies of the termite Amitermes laurensis if competition between the two intensify.
Meat ants play an important role in seed dispersal. A meat ant colony is capable of dispersing 334,000 individual bellyache bush seeds per hectare, which shows a strong ant-seed relationship among the two.


Meat ants are able to kill poisonous cane toads, an introduced pest, as the toxins exuded by the toad, usually lethal against its predators, do not affect the meat ants. Due to this, scientists in Australia have considered using meat ants as a form of pest control to reduce the cane toad population. One way of doing this is by establishing meat ant nests in habitats where cane toad numbers are high. In rural Australia, meat ants are important to farmers, who place animal carcasses on ant nests to get rid of them. In a matter of weeks, the entire carcass is consumed and reduced to bones. Due to the meat ants' aggression, workers will pour out of entrance holes to attack if a human or animal disturbs their nest.


Despite their beneficial importance to humans, meat ants are sometimes considered pests, due to these ants disturbing the soil in urban areas and entering human houses occasionally to feed. The nests may cause annoyance if they are built around gravel paths, tennis courts and other cleared spaces. Although meat ants enter houses occasionally, they have adapted well to urbanisation and populations can flourish in urban areas. During the early days of the city of Canberra, newly constructed suburbs provided new nest sites for meat ants. Unpaved streets, gravel paths and driveways are among the many new sites meat ants could nest in, making them a commonly encountered ant that may pose as a considerable pest to many. The abundance of food supplies from parks, plantations and home gardens also attracted meat ants to urban areas. They pose a serious problem for citrus growers in eastern Australia, because they affect the biological control of Hemiptera insects, specifically those who produce honeydew. Meat ants cannot sting, but they can induce irritating bites and secrete a defensive fluid from the end of their abdomen. Meat ants have been reported causing mortality amongst poultry.
Many attempted methods of eradicating meat ants have proven unsuccessful. The first investigations were made in the 1930s to control meat ant populations in urban areas by fumigation, using carbon disulfide and calcium cyanide. Although these methods successfully eradicated some nests, they were rapidly reoccupied by those living in satellite or rival nests. However, the reoccupation of these nests by incipient colonies (young colonies beginning to develop) does not occur. This is because colony founding is often difficult and rare when most areas are nested by mature colonies. This behaviour has led to long-term maintenance and repeated treatments to ensure the nests are not resettled. In addition, not all nests can be treated, and some may remain undetected from pest controllers. In 1973, Greaves notes that the poor penetration of insecticides into all nest galleries may be the reason why nests are reoccupied, but owing to the nest structure, the insecticides have to be poured into each individual hole as no gallery connects the holes to one another. Missing a single gallery can lead to the reoccupation of the nest site. Greaves concludes that dieldrin is the most effective insecticide to control meat ants, capable of killing the ants quickly and being the most long-lasting chemical used.
The difficulty of eradicating meat ants has led to further studies. Two studies between 1996 and 2002 studied the effects of granular baits on meat ant colonies. Bait containing hydramethylnon and fipronil effectively reduced the number of workers foraging. However, this was only effective when 10 g (0.35 oz) of bait was placed on citrus trees or onto mounds. The ant bait Amdro was used in a recent study to identify an effective method of eradicating meat ants, but results showed that the bait failed to reduce ant populations significantly. There was evidence that the amount of active mounds declined, but this effect was only temporary. This is due to colonies only having 5 g (0.18 oz) of bait which was insufficient to eliminate further nests, but the effect may have been more dramatic if extra bait was used.


Anacamptodes defectaria, the brown-shaded gray moth, is a moth of the  family Geometridae. It is found from Pennsylvania, west to Iowa and Kansas, south to Texas, and south and east to Florida.
The wingspan is about 30 mm. Adults are on wing from February to November depending on the location.
The larvae feed on oak, poplar, sweet cherry and willow.


It has slender, greenish, or whitish yellow rhizomes.
They are shallow rooted. They spread by sending out long stolons from multiple branches. They can have up to 2–8 cord-like branches. The branches can be 20–30 cm (8–12 in) long and 1-2mm wide. Under the rhizomes are fleshy-like roots. The branches are brown. The creeping habit can create large masses of plants over time.
It has 6–8 basal leaves, which are divided onto 2–3 proximal (close to centre) leaves and 4–5 distal (away from centre) leaves.
The proximal leaves are falcate (sickle-shaped), light brown with a darker brown central mid-rib, and the distal leaves are ensiform (sword-like), green or yellowish green, with a few visible veins. They can grow up to between 7.5–15 cm (3–6 in) long and 1–2.5 cm wide. They elongate after flowering, growing up to 15–40 cm (6–16 in) long. The elongated leaves hide any seed pods produced later.
It has short stems, (almost stemless), growing up to between 2.5–4.5 cm (1–2 in) tall. The pedicel or stem, is the same length to the ovary.
It has an overall height with stem and flower reaching 7–10 cm (3–4 in) tall.
It has 2–3 cauline (on the stem), spathes (leaves of the flower bud), which are green, falcate (sickle-shaped) slightly inflated, unequal (outer leaves are shorter than the inner leaves) and 2–6 cm (1–2 in) long.
The spathes bear 1 or 2 flowers, in Spring, or early Summer, between April to May. They only flower for a short time.
The fragrant, flowers are 3–5 cm (1–2 in) in diameter, and come in shades of blue, from lavender, to lilac, to pale blue, and purple. There are occasionally white forms, and very rarely pink forms.
It has 2 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or tepals, known as the 'standards'.
The spreading falls are 3–6 cm (1–2 in) long and 1.5–2.5 cm wide. They have a central white signal patch, which is surrounded by a purple (or dark blue,) ring, with 3 parallel orange or yellow crests (or ridges). The fall tapers towards the claw (close to the stem). The standards are erect, oblanceolate and 3–4 cm (1–2 in) long and 1–2 cm wide (narrower and shorter than the falls).
It has a filiform (thread-like), perianth tube that is 4–8 cm (2–3 in) long. This large flower tube lifts the flower above ground level.
It has a triangular, 0.6–1 cm long ovary, an oblong stigma (half the size of the falls,) and 1.5 cm long, triangular crested, style branch.
After the iris has flowered, it produces an ovoid seed capsule. The capsule is 1–2 cm long, with ridged angles and triangular in cross-section. Inside the capsule, are ellipsoid, yellowish-brown seeds that are 3.2–3.5 mm across and have a white appendage that spirally wraps around the seed.


In 2000, a study was carried out on the genetic diversity of Iris cristata and Iris lacustris. It was found that Iris cristata, is a widespread species of unglaciated regions of eastern North America, it would have a wide genetic diversity similar to other known widespread plant species, compared to the threatened Iris lacustris, which only occupies glaciated habitats on Great Lakes shorelines, (therefore smaller range) would display little genetic variation.
In 2013, a study was carried out on chromosomal characters of various iris species.
As most irises are diploid, having two sets of chromosomes, this can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings.
It has been counted twice, 2n=24 (Longley, 1928) and 32 (Simonet, 1934).

It is normally published as 2n=32.


It is pronounced as (Iris) EYE-ris (cristata) kris-TAH-tah.
It has common names of dwarf crested iris, or crested iris, and lady's calamus.
It is known as krypiris  in Swedish.
The Latin specific epithet cristata is derived from 'crista' meaning crested or with tassel-like tips. This refers to the golden yellow crest on the sepal of the iris.
In the 1750s, the American Quaker botanist, John Bartram (1699–1777) introduced Iris crisatata to England via his correspondence friend, Mr Peter Collinson. He had sent several specimen plants across the Atlantic to him. It has been in European culture in since 1766.
It was first published and described by William Aiton in Hortus Kewensis (Hort. Kew.) Volume 1, page70 in 1789.
It was later published in Botanical Magazine (t412) in 1798, then in  'Addisonia' Volume 9, Issue 4 on page 63 in December 1924 with a coloured illustration, as well as in the 'Journal of the RHS' Volume 88 in 1963.
It was verified by United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service on 11 April 2000, then updated on 1 December 2004.
Iris cristata is an accepted name by the RHS.


It is native to temperate regions of United States of America.


It grows in calcareous soils, in oak woodlands (or forests), on rocky hillsides, in ravines, on mountain ledges (and bluffs), and along streams.


Iris cristata is listed as 'endangered' in Maryland and Pennsylvania.


It is hardy to between USDA Zone 3 and Zone 9, and is hardy to European Zone H2.
 Meaning it is hardy down to −20 °C.
It prefers to grow in well-drained soils, that are neutral or slightly acidic (pH level of 6.1 to 6.5). It also prefers medium to high fertile soils containing humus. Although, it will tolerate loamy soils.
It can tolerate shade or full sun, but prefers cool, semi-shaded positions.
It has average to above average water needs during the growing season.
It becomes dormant in winter.
It can be grown in a mixed flower border, or rock garden.
It also can be naturalized, within a woodland garden, creating ground-cover.
It can also be grown on peat banks, with other acidic loving plants, including camellias and azaleas.
It is normally recommended to add peat (or leaf-mould) and sharp sand (or grit) when planting new plants.
The roots should be planted (during Spring or Summer or Autumn), so that the top of the rhizome is about 3–5 cm below the soil line.
Once planted, they can be surrounded with leaf mulch, to help with moisture retention.
They can suffer from damage by snails and slugs.
They also can suffer damage from deer, but the plants can survive the nibbling, and flowers can also be eaten.
Other minor threats include; Iris borer, verbena bud moth, whiteflies, iris weevil, thrips,  aphids, and nematodes. Bacterial leaf blight and soft rot, crown rot, rhizome rot, leaf spot, rust, viruses, and scorch.
Grown in ideal conditions, the plants can live for up to 10 years.
Smaller, poorer and paler forms were originally mistakenly thought to be Iris lacustris.
They can be found in plenty of reputable nurseries in the US, but it is rarely offered on sale, in Europe.


It can be propagated by division or by seed growing.
Since, the plant needs to be frequently divided every 3 to 4 years, to keep the plant healthy and vigorous. It is easier and more reliable to propagate via division.
This is best done in the early fall (or Autumn), when the leaves have turned yellow.
The rhizome should be split into hand-sized clumps to allow for plenty of new growth to occur.
The new plants should be kept moist until established, they also can be mulched (with a maximum of 4 inches deep) to help with water retention.
If propagating by seed. Seeds are collected from the ripe brown capsules after flowering. They should be sown on acid or slightly acidic soil. The process of seedling to flowering plant, can take up to 3 years to mature and flower.


Iris cristata has many different cultivars.
Including; Iris cristata 'Alba' (a white flowering form), 'Abbey's Violet', 'Azure', 'Baby Blue', 'Caerulea' (deep blue blooms), 'Celestial Gem', 'Crested Fairy', 'Crested Gem', 'Crested Ivory', 'Crest Of Hope', 'Cristata Alba', 'Cristata Major', 'McDonald', 'Cumberland Gap', 'Dash It All', 'Dick Butler', ‘Echo Ruffles’ (large purple blooms), 'Eco Little Bluebird', 'Eco Orchid Giant', 'Eco Purple Pomp', 'Eco Royal Ruffles', 'Eco White Angel', 'Edgar Anderson', 'Eyed Form', 'Gold Crest', 'Little Jay', 'Major', 'Millard', 'Navy Blue Gem', 'Pearl White', 'Pink', 'Powder Blue Giant', 'Shenandoah Sky',(pale blue blooms) 'Scio County', 'Skylands', 'Stormy Sky', 'Summer Sky' (deep blue blooms),  'Summer Storm',  'Tennessee White',(a white form)'Vein Mountain', 'Whisper' and 'White Pearl'.


Like many other irises, most parts of the plant are poisonous (rhizome and leaves), if mistakenly ingested can cause stomach pains and vomiting. Also handling the plant may cause a skin irritation or an allergic reaction. Also risk of Dermatitis.


It has been listed as a medicinal plant.
It has been used by the Cherokee North American Indians in herbal medicines. A decoction of the pulverized root was used as salve for ulcers. An infusion (tea) taken for liver. Also a decoction of the root was used to treat a "yellowish urine." The root was also used as an ingredient in a cream applied to skin ulcers.
The root has also been used as a spice.
In the 19th Century, hunters in Virginia used the root, as a thirst aid. It is initially sweet and then the taste of the root becomes pungently acrid.
In its native region, it has been marked as a commercially available pollinator plant that attracts bees.


Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn – ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
Browne, E. T. & R. Athey. 1992. Vascular plants of Kentucky: an annotated checklist.
Deam, C. C. 1940. Flora of Indiana.
Duncan, W. H. & J. T. Kartesz. 1981. Vascular flora of Georgia: an annotated checklist.
FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. [lists as I. cristata Sol. ex Aiton].
Gleason, H. A. & A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, ed. 2.
Jones, G. N. & G. D. Fuller. 1955. Vascular plants of Illinois.
Mathew, B. 1981. The Iris. 71.
Mohlenbrock, R. H. & D. M. Ladd. 1978. Distribution of Illinois vascular plants.
Ohio Flora Committee (E. L. Braun, T. S. Cooperrider, T. R. Fisher, J. J. Furlow). 1967–. The vascular flora of Ohio.
Radford, A. E. et al. 1964. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas.
Rickett. 1967. Wild flowers of the United States 2 (Plate 22)
Rhoads, A. F. & T. A. Block. 2000. The plants of Pennsylvania. An illustrated manual.
Strausbaugh, T. D. & E. L. Core. 1978. Flora of West Virginia, ed. 2.
Wherry, E. T. et al. 1979. Atlas of the flora of Pennsylvania.
Yatskievych, G. 1999–. Steyermark's Flora of Missouri, revised edition.


Iris douglasiana, the Douglas iris, is a common wildflower of the coastal regions of Northern and Central California and southern Oregon in the United States. It grows mainly at lower elevations, below 100 meters (330 ft), though it is occasionally found at heights of up to 1,000 meters (3,300 ft). It is most common in grasslands near the coast; it is regarded as a noxious weed in pastures, because it forms clumps that inhibit other vegetation, and its leaves are bitter and unpalatable to cattle.
This is a typical beardless iris of subgenus Limniris, series Californicae, growing from a rhizome that is typically less than a centimeter in diameter. Its leaves are about 2 centimeters (0.79 in) wide. The flowers, appearing from April to June, are usually a purplish-blue, though occasionally white or yellow flowers are found. Two or three flowers are found on each stem, which is of variable height, ranging from 15–80 centimeters (5.9–31.5 in) tall.


It was first described by 19th century botanist David Douglas in Monterey, California.
It was first published by the british botanist William Herbert in 'Bot. Beechey Voy.' 9 on page 395 in 1840.
Several varieties have been recognized, for example Iris douglasiana var. altissima (Jeps.) and Iris douglasiana var. oregonensis (R. C. Foster), but the species is highly variable and the varieties may not be well enough defined to be of much practical use. The Douglas iris hybridizes freely with several other species; its natural hybrid with I. innominata has been designated as Iris ×thompsonii (R. C. Foster), and the garden hybrid with the same species as Iris ×aureonympha (E. H. English).
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Iris foetidissima, the stinking iris, gladdon, Gladwin iris, roast-beef plant, or stinking gladwin, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae, found in open woodland, hedgebanks and on sea-cliffs.
Its natural range is Western Europe, including England (south of Durham) and also Ireland, and from France south and east to N. Africa, Italy and Greece.
It is one of two iris species native to Britain, the other being the yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus).
It has tufts of dark green leaves. Its flowers are usually of a dull, leaden-blue colour, or dull buff-yellow tinged with blue. The petals have delicate veining. It blooms between June and July, but the flowers only last a day or so.
The green seed capsules, which remain attached to the plant throughout the winter, are 5–8 cm (2–3 in) long; and the seeds are scarlet.
It is known as "stinking" because some people find the smell of its leaves unpleasant when crushed or bruised, an odour that has been described as "beefy". Its common names of 'gladdon' and 'gladwyn' or 'gladwin', are in reference to an old word for a sword, (Latin 'gladius') due to the shape of the irises leaves.
This plant is cultivated in gardens in the temperate zones. Both the species and its cultivar 'Variegata' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Richard Fitter, Alastair Fitter and Marjorie Blamey Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe (1996), p. 284, at Google Books
Plants For A Future: Iris foetidissima
Spencer-Jones, Rae; Cuttle, Sarah (2005). Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland. London: Kyle Cathie Limited. p. 88. ISBN 9781856265034.
"RHS Plant Selector - Iris foetidissima". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
"RHS Plant Selector - Iris foetidissima 'Variegata'". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
"AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 53. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
 Data related to Iris foetidissima at Wikispecies


Iris lacustris, the dwarf lake iris, is a plant species in the genus Iris, subgenus Limniris and in the section Lophiris (crested irises). It is a rhizomatous, beardless perennial plant,  native to the Great Lakes region of eastern North America. It has lavender blue or violet-blue flowers, a very short stem
and long fan-like green leaves. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It is closely related to Iris cristata (another North American crested iris).


It is similar in form to Iris cristata but is chromosomally different and smaller.
It has slender, wiry, or cord-like, greenish-brown, or yellow rhizomes. It has a large central section and outer sections, which are 3–5 cm (1–2 in) long and 0.8–1.2 cm wide. The outer sections have fibrous roots (underneath), and 2–3 brown scale-like leaves above.
It creeps across the ground, creating thick clumps of plants.
It has 8–12 sheathing, (fan-like), green or light green, basal leaves. They are falcate (sickle-shaped) or sword-shaped, and linear, and 4–6 cm (2–2 in) long and 10–8 mm wide.
After flowering, the leaves elongate up to 15–16 cm (6–6 in) long and 10 mm wide.
When the plant is not in flower, the leaves of the iris might be confused with false asphodel, (Triantha glutinosa, a white flowered member of the lily family whose leaves are much narrower) which lives in similar habitats. Although, the flower stem of false asphodel is much longer than that of iris and very sticky.
It has very short stems, which are 0.8–5 cm (0–2 in) long. The stems and flowers are shorter than the leaves.
It has green spathes (leaves of the flower bud), which are slightly keeled, and 3–4.5 cm (1–2 in) long. They have scarious (membranous) edges.
The short stems have 1 to 2 flowers, in Spring, or summer (in Europe), in April, or May, or early June, or July. In Spring, it can flower up to 7 to 10 days earlier than Iris cristata, and it can have later flush of flowers in the fall (or Autumn), or October.
The flowers are 4–6 cm (2–2 in) in diameter, come in shades of blue, violet-blue, sky blue, deep blue, lavender blue, lilac, or deep purple.
A white form has occasionally, also been found.
It has 2 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or tepals), known as the 'standards'.
The obovate shaped, falls are 2–2.3 cm (1–1 in) long and 0.8 cm wide. They taper towards the claw (section closest to the stem). They have a white signal patch, which has a deep violet margin, and 3 central, orange, gold, or yellow and white toothed (or fimbriated – fringed) ridges (or crests). The signal patch guides bumblebees in to the middle of the flower, to pollinate it. The standards are narrowly oblanceolate, 1–1.5 cm (0–1 in) long and 0.4–0.5 cm wide. They are shorter and narrower than the falls.
It has a yellow funnel-like, perianth tube, which is 1–2 cm long. The tube is shorter than Iris cristata.
It has a trigonal (or triangular), ovary, which is 0.8–1 cm long. It has a 1–2 cm long style, which has linear crests and wavy (crenate) edges. The style arm guides bumblebees to the lower section of the sepal, to reach the nectar.
After the iris has flowered, between late June to late July, it produces a roundly triangular, or ovoid, seed capsule, which is covered by the spathes. The capsules are 1.2 mm long and 8 mm wide. Inside the capsule, are 3 mm wide, dark brown seeds, which have a white appendage (or aril, fleshy thickening of seed coat), spiralled around the seed. This spiral or corkscrew-like appendage is called an eliaosome. The eliaosomes are used as energy-rich food sources by ants, who help pollinate the plant.


In 1994, a study was carried out on the genetic make-up of Iris lacustris.
In 2000, a study was carried out on Iris cristata and Iris lacustris, looking at the genetic variation of both irises.
As most irises are diploid, having two sets of chromosomes, this can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings.
It has been counted several times, 2n=42, Simonet, 1934; n=21, 2n=42, Chimphamba, 1973 and 2n=32, Pringle, 1976. It is normally published as 2n = 32, 42.


The Latin name is pronounced Iris (EYE-ris) lacustris (lak-US-triss).
It has the common name of dwarf lake iris, lake iris, and Great Lakes iris.
The Latin specific epithet lacustris means "of lakes".
The iris was found on Mackinac Island in 1810 by Thomas Nuttall. The botanist travelled from Detroit by canoe with French Canadian voyagers and the surveyor for the Michigan Territory.
It was first then published and described by Thomas Nuttall, in 'The Genera of North American Plants' (published in Philadelphia, USA) Volume 1, Issue 23 on 14 July 1818.
An illustration of the iris was published in Wild flowers of the United States by Rickett, plate 11 in 1966.
It was verified by United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service on 15 April 1994, then updated on 3 December 2004.
It is a close relative to Iris cristata, the only other crested iris native to North America. However, unlike it, Iris lacustris is found only in small areas of the Great Lakes region that have been glacier-free for only 11,000 years. It was once thought to be a form of Iris cristata, (by William Rickatson Dykes in 1913 and other authors), later chromosomal studies confirmed the two were separate species.


Iris lacustris is native to temperate regions of northern America.


It is found in Canada, within the province of Ontario (on the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island).
It is found in U.S.A., within the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and, infrequently in Ohio.
It is found on northern shores and smaller islands of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior, within the Great Lakes region.
The majority of iris populations are within 500 m of the shore of Lake Huron, but the largest ones can occur up several kilometres away from the lake.


It grows on the Great Lakes shorelines in cool, moist lake shore air.
It is found on sand, or in thin soil over limestone-rich gravel, in calcareous (chalky) soil, or bedrock.
It also grows on alvar limestone barrens, and along shorelines, old beach ridges, beside streams, in ditches, on cliffs, behind open dunes, or at the edges of coniferous woods (in Canada and Michigan).


Iris lacustris is designated a "vulnerable" threatened species by federal, state and provincial laws throughout its distribution range. It was added to the U.S. List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants on September 28, 1988. It is on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's endangered species program. It was listed by the federal U.S. government as 'threatened' since February 1, 2001. It has become threatened due to habitat destruction, from shoreline development, from road-widening projects, chemical spraying and salting, and off-road vehicle use have caused disturbance and destruction of habitat, and degradation of habitats.
Due to being a protected species, plants can not be dug up or seeds gathered. A permit is required for any project (including research, development, and construction) which may "take" or "harm" threatened or endangered species in Michigan. Also 37% of the Canadian population is on land in protected areas. Shoreline development has also improved some habitats by opening up the canopy and creating new open ground.


It is hardy to between USDA Zone 4 and Zone 7. and European Zone H2 It is hardy in Europe, and in the UK.
It is tolerant of a range of soils, but prefers moist, slightly acidic neutral soils.
It flowers mostly in semi-open habitats with partial sun. Although it can tolerate sunny sites.
It can grow in a peat bank, or can be grown in a six-inch pot or similar container.
It is rarely offered for sale in Europe.
A specimen has been grown in Cambridge Botanic Garden.


Like many other irises, most parts of the plant are poisonous (rhizome and leaves), if mistakenly ingested can cause stomach pains and vomiting. Handling the plant may also cause a skin irritation or an allergic reaction.


In 1998, Iris lacustris was designated the state wildflower of Michigan, where the vast majority of populations exist.


Center for Plant Conservation. Center for Plant Conservation National Collection of Endangered Plants (on-line resource).
FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America.
Gleason, H. A. & A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of north eastern United States and adjacent Canada, ed. 2.
Kartesz, J. T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland.
Mathew, B. 1981. The Iris. 74–75.
Scoggan, H. J. 1978–1979. The flora of Canada, 4 vol.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Species Information: threatened and endangered animals and plants (on-line resource).
Voss, E. 1972–. Michigan flora.


Iris missouriensis (syn. I. montana) is a hardy flowering rhizomatous species of the genus Iris, in the family Iridaceae.  Its common names include western blue flag, Rocky Mountain iris, and Missouri flag.
It is native to western North America. Its distribution is varied; it grows at high elevations in mountains and alpine meadows and all the way down to sea level in coastal hills.


Iris missouriensis is an erect herbaceous rhizomatous perennial, 20 to 40 centimetres (7+7⁄8 to 15+3⁄4 in) high, with leafless unbranched scapes (flowering stems) and linear basal leaves, 5 to 10 mm wide, similar in height to the scapes. The inflorescence usually consists of one or two flowers, exceptionally three or four. Each flower has three light to dark blue, spreading or reflexed sepals lined with purple and three smaller upright blue petals. They produce a large fruit capsule.
The plant populations often spread outwards from the older plants, leaving a dead opening in the center of a growing ring.


Some Native American tribes made cordage from the plant's stems and leaves. Some Plateau Indian tribes used the roots to treat toothache.
The Navajo used a decoction of the plant as an emetic. Plains Indians are said to have extracted the toxin irisin from the plant to use as arrow poison. The Zuni apply a poultice of chewed root to increase the strength of newborns and infants.
This iris is listed as a weed in some areas, particularly in agricultural California. It is bitter and distasteful to livestock and heavy growths of the plant are a nuisance in pasture land. Heavy grazing in an area promotes the growth of this hardy iris.
The plant is widely cultivated in temperate regions.


The plant is toxic, particularly the rootstalks, which contain the potentially lethal irisin.


Iris oratoria, known by the common name Mediterranean mantis (or less frequently iris mantis), due to humans first studying it in lands around the Mediterranean Sea, is a species of praying mantis. Its range is expanding in the Middle East, Western Asia and the United States.


Albania, Bulgaria, Brač Island, Korčula Island, France (Including Corsica), Greece (Including Ionian Islands, Crete, Cyclades Islands), Italy (Including Sardinia, Sicily), North Macedonia, Portugal, Spain (Including Balearic Islands),  Yugoslavia (Including Serbia, Kosovo, Voivodina, Montenegro), North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, North Chad), Cyprus, West, Central and South Asia (Asian Turkey, India, Israel, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Turkestan), Non-native to the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas.).


I. oratoria is very pale when young but matures to grass green, and grows to about 6.5 cm long.  The species may be distinguished from Mantis religiosa and other mantids with which it shares a range and general size and shape by the red-orange spot on the ventral side of the fourth (second to last) abdominal segment; also, its cerci are shorter than those of M. religiosa. The species is distinctive in having two large startling violet-brown eyespots on its hind wings which are revealed when its wings are unfolded. The adult is more slender than Tenodera sinensis, more like Mantis religiosa in shape. Females have wings shorter than the abdomen, very similar to some Stagmomantis species, but easily distinguished if the hindwings are visible.


Two novel I. oratoria survival strategies may have contributed to the expansion of this species beyond its original range, and its success in areas formerly occupied by other mantids such as Stagmomantis carolina. Firstly, this species is capable of parthenogenic reproduction when males are scarce. Secondly, additional  I. oratoria nymphs may emerge from their oothecae in the second season after the egg case is produced, i.e., when their siblings are already grown and are producing their own offspring.


At a field site in Davis, CA, S. limbata hatched earlier in the season than Iris oratoria, and Iris oratoria tended to persist longer into the year.


The Mediterranean mantis is known for two distinctive behaviours, apart from the ambush hunting common to other mantids: cannibalism and deimatic or threat displays.  The sexual cannibalism of mantids known in popular culture occurs in roughly one quarter of all intersexual encounters of I. oratoria.
When the mantis is under attack, it sets in motion a complex series of actions which combine to form a startling deimatic display. The mantis turns to face the aggressor, rears up by arching its back, curls its abdomen upwards (dorsiflexion), raises and waves its forelimbs, raises its wings to displays the large brightly coloured eyespots on the hindwings, and stridulates by scraping the edge of its hindwings against its tegmina, the leathery front wings.


Compared to Stagmomantis limbata, Iris oratoria eats a lesser portion of Orthopteran insects and does not eat as much long bodied insects.  S. limbata adults have longer pronota and forelegs than I. oratoria adults. This difference in body size might be an important cause of the dietary differences between the species.  Furthermore, the earlier hatch date for S. limbata also might reduce the overlap in Iris oratoria and Stagmomantis limbata diets.


Iris pseudacorus, the yellow flag, yellow iris, or water flag, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae.  It is native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa. Its specific epithet pseudacorus means "false acorus", referring to the similarity of its leaves to those of Acorus calamus (sweet flag), as they have a prominently veined mid-rib and sword-like shape. However, the two plants are not closely related. The flower is commonly attributed with the fleur-de-lis.


This herbaceous flowering perennial plant grows to 100–150 cm (39–59 in), or a rare 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall, with erect leaves up to 90 cm (35 in) long and 3 cm (1.2 in) broad. The flowers are bright yellow, 7–10 cm (2.8–3.9 in) across, with the typical iris form. The fruit is a dry capsule 4–7 cm (1.6–2.8 in) long, containing numerous pale brown seeds.
I. pseudacorus grows best in very wet conditions, and is common in wetlands, where it tolerates submersion, low pH, and anoxic soils. The plant spreads quickly, by both rhizome and water-dispersed seed. It fills a similar niche to that of Typha and often grows with it, though usually in shallower water. While it is primarily an aquatic or marginal plant, the rhizomes can survive prolonged dry conditions.
Large I. pseudacorus stands in western Scotland form a very important feeding and breeding habitat for the endangered corncrake.
I. pseudacorus is one of two iris species native to the United Kingdom, the other being Iris foetidissima (stinking iris).
Both the petals and stem are toxic to animals and plants.


The plant was rated in second place for per day nectar production per flower in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project, which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative. However, when number of flowers per floral unit, flower abundance, and phenology were taken into account, it dropped out of the top 10 for most nectar per unit cover per year, as did all plants that placed in the top ten, with the exception of common comfrey, Symphytum officinale.


It is widely planted in temperate regions as an ornamental plant, with several cultivars selected for bog garden planting. The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
'Roy Davidson'
'Variegata'  (it has leaves that are edged with deep white stripes )
Other cultivars known include; Alba (with pale cream flowers) and Golden Fleece (with dark yellow flowers).
It used to grow in the ditch of the fortified city of Mdina, on the island of Malta, where water was readily available, but since the renovation of the ditch it has since vanished from the area.


In some regions (including the USA and South Africa) where it is not native, it has escaped from cultivation to establish itself as an invasive aquatic plant which can create dense, monotypic stands, outcompeting other plants in the ecosystem. Where it is invasive, it is tough to remove on a large scale. Even ploughing the rhizomes is often ineffective. It has been banned in some areas but is still widely sold in others for use in gardens.
Iris pseudacorus is reported as invasive in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.


The plant's roots and leaves are poisonous.
This plant has been used as a form of water treatment since it can take up macronutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) through its roots, and is featured in many AS Level Biology practicals as its ability to grow in low pH levels makes it a useful indicator.
It can also withstand high salinity levels in the water.


Iris ruthenica is very variable and hybrids can look very similar to Iris uniflora, the other species in the Iris series Ruthenicae. It can be variable with its leaf length and width, and flower height.
It has a creeping rhizome, (about 3–5 mm in diameter) which is branched and has fibrous roots. The creeping rhizome forms a clump or a grass-like tuft plant.
It has bright green leaves, or greyish green leaves. That are tall and thin, and grass-like, measuring between 10 – 40 cm (8–13 in) long and 2 – 6 mm wide. The leaves can grow longer than the flower stem.
The plant (stem and flowers) grows to a height of between 3–20 cm  (12 in).
The thick stem is 2–3 cm wide, can grow to heights of between 3–20 cm. It has the remains of last years leaves at the base of the stem.
It blooms in spring, (between May, June and July in the UK), or early to mid summer, with one normally, but occasionally 2 fragrant flowers.
The large flowers are between 3–5 cm in diameter, with a cylindrical, perianth tube measuring 0.5–1.5 cm long.
The flowers come in a range of blue shades between violet  and bluish lavender. Which are marked with violet veining. Like other irises, it has 2 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or tepals), known as the 'standards'. The falls (measuring 4.5–5 cm) are white. The standards (measuring 4–6 cm) are almost erect. The bracts (measuring 3–5 cm ) are greenish with pink margins, violet blue stigma, and milky white anthers.
It has a globose (globe-like) to ovoid shaped seed capsule (measuring 1.2—1.5 cm) in June–August (after the flowering period is over).  Once they are ripe, the seed capsules fully open and all the seeds are dispersed in one movement. Unlike other iris species. The seeds are pyriform (pear-shaped) and have an aril (white appendage on the edge of the seed). The aril disappears soon after and shrivels up.


As most irises are diploid, having two sets of chromosomes. Which can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings. It has a chromosome count: 2n=84  (found by Simonet in 1934).


It is written as 紫苞鸢尾 in Chinese script, and known as 'zi bao yuan wei'.
It is named after the region of the 'Ruthenia', in Transylvania and Romania,
It has several common names; 'ever blooming iris' (in the UK), 'Russian Iris', 'pilgrim iris' (sometimes called a synonym of Iris ruthenica), and 'Hungarian Iris' in Europe.
It is known as ungersk iris in Sweden.
Iris ruthenica was first published by John Bellenden Ker Gawler in Botanical Magazine in 1808. It was later published in 1811, as Iris ruthenica with the common name 'Pigmy iris' in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, vol. 34, table 1393. Pigmy iris is now used as the common name of Iris pumila.
It was mentioned the journals of Captain Beechy's Voyage (in 1825), and is mentioned in Cherepanov's Vascular Plants of Russia.
It was verified by United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service on 42 October 2014, and is an accepted name by the RHS.


Iris ruthenica is native to a wide region, including temperate Asia and Europe.


It is found in southern Russia and Siberia, through Central Asia, (including Altai Mountains and Turkestan, on the Tien Shen mountain range, Kazakhstan and Mongolia), to China and Korea. Within Europe, it is found in Romania.
It is listed with Iris bloudowii, Iris humilis, Iris lactea, Iris sibirica, Iris tenuifolia and Iris tigridia as being found in the Altai-Sayan region (where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together).


It is found on dry meadows (including grass plains and steppes), pine and birch forest edges and edges of woodland. It can also be found in forest clearings in the forest-meadow mountain belt. Forming a thicket ground-cover.
In Mongolia it is found under Pinus sylvestris/Betula platyphylla subtaiga forests, in montane meadow steppes with Festuca lenensis and Artemisia sericea and in Pinus sibirica/Picea obovata dark taiga forests (within the upper montane belt with Rubus saxatilis and Lathyrus humilis).
Elsewhere in Eurasia, it is found in the Larch forests of Altai and Sayan mountains including Tuva).
It is also found in Tuvan Forests as a subcanopy woody species.
On the Altai Mountains, it is found with other mountain flowers including Siberian Dogs-tooth Violet (Erythronium krylovii), Altai Foxtail Lily (Eremurus), a variety of saxifrages, Aquilegia, Gentiana grandiflora, Papaver nudicaule and the yellow Iris bloudowii.
At altitudes of between 1800 and 3600m.


It is hardy to USDA Zone 2, or Zone 3.
Iris ruthenica does not flower very well in the UK. It is best cultivated in fertile soils that do not dry out. It is best suited for Rock Gardens or at the front of a flower border. Although sinks or troughs could be used. It also grows well on dry peat banks. It is tolerant of semi-shade, but prefers full sun.
Unlike many other irises, it can only be moved with success, during the spring and summer when it is in full growth.
Iris ruthenica is grown in several Russian botanical gardens including, Barnaul, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kirov, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Tomsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Chita.


It can be propagated by division or by seed. The seeds should be sown in the autumn and the rhizomes divided in early spring.  The seeds germinate fairly quickly and new plants are easily raised. But the young plants must not dry out. The old and damaged rhizomes should be removed before replanting.


Iris ruthenica var. nana was once thought to be a smaller variety of Iris ruthenica. but this is now considered a synonym.
Although, Iris ruthenica var. brevituba which has a small perianth tube, and violet flowers, it is also now considered a variant.
Iris ruthenica has the following known cultivars;
'Gamlin Blue',
'Red Form'.


Iris setosa is similar in form to a miniature Japanese iris, or a dwarf version of Iris sibirica but a shorter lived version.
The shallowly rooted, large, branching rhizomes spread over time to create large clumps. The rhizomes are grey-brown, thick, and are covered with old (maroon-brown) fibrous leaf remains (of last seasons leaves).
It has branched stems, which are very variable in height, ranging from 10 cm (5 inches) up to 1 m (3 ft) tall. The larger plants can grow beyond the height of the leaves. The roundish stems are between 1.5–9 cm in diameter with 1 to 3 branches.
Iris setosa has mid-green leaves, which are grass-like, and lanceolate (sword-shaped). They have a purplish tinged base and the leaves can measure 30–60 cm (12–24 in) long by 0.8–2.5 cm wide.
The plant has 3–4 flowers per stem (between 6 and 13 for the whole plant, in groups of 3,) and it blooms between June and July.
The large flowers are between 5–8 cm (3–6 in) across, usually 7–8 cm, and come in a range of shades of blue, which can depend on the location. and range from violet, purple-blue, violet-blue, blue, to lavender. Very occasionally, there are pink or white forms.
Like other irises,  it has 3 pairs of petals, 3 large sepals (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or tepals), known as the 'standards'. The sepals can be deeply veined dark purple with a yellow-white signal (centre). The standards are so small, that they are reduced to bristles.  Which gives the flower, a flat, three petal appearance.
The perianth tube (floral tube) is about 1 cm long, normally dark blue-violet to red-purple with darker veins.
The plant is self-fertile, being hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and it is pollinated by insects. The stamens are about 2 cm long, the anthers are purple and the ovary about 1 cm long.
After the flowers have finished blooming, the seeds ripen between August and September. They are cased within a green seed capsule, which is loculicidal, or cylindrical, (measuring 2.5 cm by 1.25 cm), which turns pale brown when it ripens. It has 6 ribs along its sides.
The pale brown seeds (about 2–3 mm in size) have a distinct raised raphe (tissue ridge) the length of one edge.


In 2012, a genetic study was carried out on Iris laevigata and several of its closely related iris species, including Iris ensata, Iris setosa, Iris halophila, Iris scariosa, Iris potaninii, Iris tenuifolia, Iris bloudowii, and Iris sanguinea. Flavonoids also have been analysed from the flowers and leaves of the Iris japonica (ARISAWA et al., 1973), Iris pseudacorus (WILLIAMS et al., 1986), Iris gracilipes (HAYASHI et al., 1984) and Iris setosa (HAYASHI,1984).
As most irises are diploid, having two sets of chromosomes. This can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings. It has a chromosome count: 2n=38, found by Simonet in 1934. Specimens from Primorskii Krai in Russia, were found to have a chromosome count of 2n=28. Using chromosome research, a progenitor of Iris setosa has been found to be the parent of Iris versicolor with a progenitor of Iris virginica.


It is written as 山鸢尾 in Chinese script and 'shan yuan wei' in China. In Japan it is known as 檜扇菖蒲/ヒオウギアヤメ and called 'hiougi-ayame'.
It has several common names, including 'Beachhead Iris' (because it is tolerant of salt air or maritime conditions, encountered in rocky ground above shorelines, especially known as this in Canada), 'Wild flag iris' 'Alaska iris'  'Arctic Iris' (or Dwarf Arctic Iris, because it grows into the Arctic Circle, and it formerly possessed the taxonomic name 'Iris arctica'), 'Arctic blue flag'. and 'Bristle-pointed iris' (in the UK).
The name 'setosa' is derived from the Latin word 'seta' meaning 'bristle' (or hairy), this refers to the standards being almost absent.
It occasionally gets mixed up with Iris hookeri. Mainly because several synonyms of Iris hookeri, were I. setosa variants (I. setosa var. canadensis Foster, I. setosa f. pallidiflora Fernald,  I. setosa subsp. pygmaea C.E.Lundstr. and I. setosa f. zonalis Eames).
It was first published by Link (based on an earlier description by Pallas) in 'Jahrbücher der Gewächskunde' (translated as 'Yearbook of Greenhouse'). (Berlin and Leipzig) in 1820. It was originally described from specimens found in east Siberia. It was then published in William Rickatson Dykes (Iris 1913 p. 92) as 'Iris Brachycuspis', which later regarded as a synonym. In 1824, it was also published as 'Iris brachycuspsi' by Fisch. ex Sims in the Botanical Magazine, which is also now regarded as a synonym.
Iris setosa is an accepted name by the RHS, and gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (RHS AGM).
It is one of the three iris species in the Iris flower data set outlined by Ronald Fisher in his 1936 paper "The use of multiple measurements in taxonomic problems" as an example of linear discriminant analysis.


This is the only iris species that is native to both Asia and North America.


Iris setosa has a circum-arctic distribution ranging from coastal Aleutian islands, Alaska, (including Knik Arm in Anchorage,) and Maine in USA, within Canada (including British Columbia, Newfoundland, Quebec, and the Yukon), within Russia (including near to the lower Lena River, Siberia), northeastern Asia, China (including Manchuria and east Jilin), Korea and southwards to Japan (including Honshu and Hokkaido).
It is thought that the form of I. setosa that grows in Canada is slightly different from the Asian form. In Canada, it is found along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and as far north as the estuary of Saint-Vallier, in Bellechasse county. It is also found in many Canadian parks including; Glacier Bay National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park, Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Acadia National Park, Katmai National Park and Kenai Fjords National Park. It is not found north of the Brooks mountain Range in Alaska.
The species is found in large amounts in Akkeshi, in eastern Hokkaido, Japan.


Iris setosa is tolerant of many kinds of habitats. It can be found in bogs (or swamps), meadows, beside rivers (or streams), on lake shores, (especially rocky shores), beaches, dunes, headlands and light woodland. It can grow in sand or gravelly soils. Although, normally considered a wetland plant, it does well in dry soil, too. It is normally found at 1,500–2,500 m (4,900–8,200 ft) above sea level.


It was on the Red List of Japanese endangered plants (listed as critically threatened).


Iris setosa is suitable to be grown in the front of a border, miniature versions are also suitable for the rock garden or sinks. It can also be grown in on the sunny edge of a woodland garden. Or in a bog garden (in temperate regions).
The iris prefer to grow in moist or wet soils. They can also tolerate bog conditions, especially during the growing season it needs a lot of moisture. It can adapt to various conditions, except heavy clay soils that dry out in summer. They dislike soils containing lime. It prefers to grow in partial shade, as full sun risks drought conditions.
Similar to other rhizomatous irises, the rhizome should be planted with the top of the rhizome uncovered with soil. If covered or planted too deep it risks rotting.
In mild temperate areas, the leaves are evergreen, (surviving the winter). But it is best to tidy up the plant and trim the leaves back before the winter, this reduces wind rockage (and root disturbance), then in spring, new leaves will emerge.
Some authors have suggested that irises are deer-proof. This is thought to be incorrect, the leaves can be eaten but they will grow back.
Aphids Macrosiphum euphorbiae and Myzus ornathus can be found on the plant.


Iris setosa is one of the hardiest species of irises, but does needs a cold dormant period in winter, and so does not do as well in warm climates. As a native plant of Alaska, it is extremely cold-hardy (minus thirty degrees F. wouldn't kill it). It would only be killed, if never given any summer at all.
It is hardy to various USDA Zone 3–7, or 3–8  or 4–8 but may tolerate Zone 2 and Zone 9 in perfect conditions.


Iris setosa can be propagated by seed or by division.
As with all irises, it can difficult to propagate from seed (in the US). It is easier to do so by rhizome divisions. As, the plant increases naturally by rhizomes. Division is best taken place in spring and autumn if possible, ideally in September (about 4–6 weeks after flowering). It can be annually, but it is better every third year, or whenever the plant has spread so much that the centre of the plant, no longer produces any flowering stems. If the plant, is only divided into thirds or quarters, the new divisions can be planted straight away, but if divided into very small sections (for maximum number of plants), these should be put in a coldframe until the following spring when they should have grown new roots.
It is easier to grow from seed in the UK, because the seed requires a cold period (freeze/thaw period).
Seeds of the iris can be shaken from the seed capsule in mid-August. They should be planted into beds or trays in a cold frame. They should be sown into drills  1/4 to 1/2 inch deep. If not sown straight away, they should be frozen (to store them).  In spring, the seedlings, should be 'pricked out' into individual pots, when they are large enough to handle. They then can be grown in the greenhouse or cold frame for their first year. Plant out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer. New plants should be planted in September,
It takes at least two years to grow a plant from seed to flowering plant.


Iris setosa hybridizes very easily with other Iris species  (including Siberian and Californian irises)and is therefore often used by breeders of Iris hybrids.
Many variants are known around the world and there are three known variants in Japan – Iris setosa var. hondoensis, Iris setosa var. nasuensis and Iris 'Shiga Ayame'.
Iris setosa var. hondoensis was found in Hondo, Japan, in 1930. It is approximately 80 cm (31 in) high, robust, low branching, with large purple flowers. It is assumed that it is a hybrid with Iris laevigata. It has a chromosome numbers of 2n=54, but they may be triploids.
Iris setosa var. nasuensis was found near the city of Nasu on Honshu island. It grows up to 1m tall. It has broader leaves then Iris setosa and has large flowers (similar to 'Iris laevigata') but has small bracts. It has a chromosome numbers of 2n=54, but they may be triploids.
Iris 'Shiga Ayame' is a hybrid of Iris setosa and Iris sanguinea. It was found in the Shiga Highlands in near the city of Nagano, in central Honshu in 1930 by Yokouchi and Koidzumi, and it was named after the area in where it was discovered. The inner perianths of this iris are an intermediate type between two parents. These three hybrids of I. setosa are found only in limited areas of Honshu Island.
Iris setosa also form hybrids with larger blue flag. Specimens of such hybrids have been observed on Anticosti Island, Quebec.
Named cultivars include;
'Kosho-en' – (1984) with white flowers.
'Kirigamini' –  with rich velvety blue-purple flowers.


Herbalists have used the rhizome of Iris setosa for centuries as an ingredient in various medicines, (similar to the usage of Orris roots). However, all parts of Iris setosa are poisonous. The rhizome contains iridin which is an oleoresin. This substance can affect the liver and digestive organs. It can cause allergic reactions such as severe rashes. It can also cause vomiting or diarrhea. It was used in an ingredient in a poison to put on arrowheads.
Although the plant is poisonous, its starchy roots can be made safe for human consumption via cooking. It is cultivated in Japan for its edible root. The Aleut also made a drink from the roots, to be used as a laxative, but the Iñupiat considered the whole plant poisonous. It is used to make a tincture, when used in small amounts to help soothe lymphatic swelling. It can be combined with arnica as an herbal oil to relieve bruises.
Some Inuit tribes in Alaska also roasted and ground the seeds of the iris to be used as a coffee substitute.
The flower petals can be used to create a violet-blue dye, when it is used with a chrome mordant (or fixing agent). They are also were used as a grass dye for baskets. The rhizomes can also be used to extract a perfume (similar to the essence of violets).


Artyukova, E.V.; Kozyrenko, M.M.; Ilyushko, M.V.; Zhuravlev, Y.N.; Reunova, G.D. (2001). "Genetic Variability of Iris setosa". Molecular Biology. 35 (1): 134–138. doi:10.1023/A:1004823422785. S2CID 6451178.
Iwashina, T.; Ootani, S. (1995). "Polyphenols in Iris setosa var. canadensis and their chemotaxonomic comparisons with three Japanese varieties". Annals of the Tsukuba Botanical Garden. 14: 35–41.


Iris versicolor is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant, growing 10–80 cm (4–31 in) high. It tends to form large clumps from thick, creeping rhizomes. The unwinged, erect stems generally have basal leaves that are more than 1 cm (1⁄2 in) wide. Leaves are folded on the midribs so that they form an overlapping flat fan. The well developed blue flower has 6 petals and sepals spread out nearly flat and have two forms. The longer sepals are hairless and have a greenish-yellow blotch at their base. The inferior ovary is bluntly angled. Flowers are usually light to deep blue (purple and violet are not uncommon) and bloom during May to July. Fruit is a 3-celled, bluntly angled capsule. The large seeds can be observed floating in fall.


The species has been implicated in several poisoning cases of humans and animals who consumed the rhizomes, which have been found to contain a glycoside, iridin. The sap can cause dermatitis in susceptible individuals.


Both the leaves and roots are poisonous, and can cause stomach and intestinal inflammation. Consuming the plant can be fatal to calves.
The iris has been used as magical plant, with people carrying the root (or rhizome) to get 'financial gain', or it was placed in cash registers to increase business.


Isa textula, the crowned slug moth or skiff moth is a moth of the family Limacodidae. It is found in North America from Minnesota, southern Ontario and Massachusetts to Florida, Texas, and Mississippi.
The larvae feed on the leaves of various trees, including oak, cherry, maple, basswood, elm and beech. Early instars leave zigzagging tracks in the underside of leaves. They are pale green and flattened and have lobes with stinging spines and additional stinging hairs which run down the back.
Another moth, Prolimacodes badia, is also referred to by the common name skiff moth.


Ischnura cervula, the Pacific forktail, is a species of narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
The IUCN conservation status of Ischnura cervula is "LC", least concern, with no immediate threat to the species' survival. The population is stable. The IUCN status was reviewed in 2018.


Ischnura heterosticta, one of at least two species with the common name common bluetail, is an Australian damselfly of the family Coenagrionidae.
It is the largest of the three Ischnura species in Australia.  They are generally found near slow-running or still water. The species is also salt tolerant. It flies from October to March.


The common bluetail is a small damselfly. Most males have blue eyes, a blue thorax, and a blue ringed tail. The females have a variety of forms including green, brown, black, and a form with very similar colourings to the male.


In Australia, Ischnura heterosticta is found throughout the entire continent including Tasmania.


Ischnura kellicotti, the lilypad forktail, is a species of narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in North America.
The IUCN conservation status of Ischnura kellicotti is "LC", least concern, with no immediate threat to the species' survival. The population is stable. The IUCN status was reviewed in 2017.


Ischnura perparva, the western forktail, is a species of narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in North America.
The IUCN conservation status of Ischnura perparva is "LC", least concern, with no immediate threat to the species' survival. The population is stable. The IUCN status was reviewed in 2017.


Ischnura posita, the fragile forktail, is a species of damselfly in the genus Ischnura. It is 21 to 29 mm long. It is native to most all of eastern North America.


Ischnura senegalensis, also known variously as common bluetail, marsh bluetail, ubiquitous bluetail, African bluetail, and Senegal golden dartlet, is a widespread damselfly of the family Coenagrionidae. It is native from Africa, through the Middle East, to southern and eastern Asia.


It is a small damselfly with black capped bluish green eyes. Its thorax is black on dorsum and greenish blue on the sides. Its abdomen is black on dorsum up to segment 7. Segments 1 and 2 are greenish blue and 3 to 7 are khaki yellow on the sides. Segments 8 and 9 are azure blue, with 9 black on dorsum. Segment 10 is black on dorsum and khaki yellow on the sides. The green on thorax and abdomen may turn to blue in both male and female when aged.
The females of this species exhibit sexual mimicry. One group mimics the males’ colour (androchromes). Other group will have their own female colouration (gynochromes). Androchrom female looks exactly like the male except in sexual characteristics. In gynochrome, the eyes are olive green with orange above. Sides of the thorax is mud colored, will pale when matured. All the abdominal segments are marked with black on dorsum. The lateral sides are khaki yellow. Segments 1-2 and 8-10 have orage color laterally, will fade when matured.
It breeds in marshes, weedy ponds and wetlands.


Eastern forktail (Ischnura verticalis) is a member of the damselfly family Coenagrionidae.


This species is present  in the Eastern United States, from the Atlantic coast to the Midwest and from north of Florida to Southern Canada and west to Montana and New Mexico.


These damselflies inhabit various wetlands, especially  small  ponds, slow moving streams and marshes.


Ischnura verticalis can reach a body length of 22–30 millimetres (0.87–1.18 in). These small green, black and blue damselflies have a slender body with four wings folding over the back. The thorax of the males is black above, with pale green sides and green shoulder stripes. Eyes are dark above, greenish below. Abdomen is mainly black, with thin pale rings. The top of the abdomen (eighth and ninth abdominal segments) is blue, with black markings on sides.  The males' abdomens shows tiny projections off the tip (hence the common name verticalis of this species).
Females are usually grayish-blue, with greyish markings on the abdomen. In the immature female, the thorax is bright orange with black dorsal and shoulder stripes. The abdomen is black above and orange below. Eyes are dark above, orange below. The pterostigma is white to light brown. The females may be less commonly yellow-green like the male.
This species is very similar to Ishnura perparva, or the Western Forktail. These two species can be better distinguished on the basis of their range.


Isocoma acradenia is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name alkali goldenbush.
It is native to the Southwestern United States (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona) and northwestern Mexico (Sonora, Baja California). It grows in arid, sandy areas, particularly mineral-rich areas such as alkali flats and gypsum soils.


Isocoma acradenia is a bushy subshrub reaching maximum heights of slightly over 1 m (39 in). It produces erect, branching stems which are a shiny pale yellowish white, aging to a yellow-gray.
Along the tough, hard-surfaced stems are linear or oval-shaped glandular leaves 1–6 cm (0.39–2.36 in) long, sometimes with stumpy teeth along the edges. They are gray-green and age to pale gray or tan.
The inflorescences along the top parts of the stem branches are clusters of four or five flower heads. Each head is a capsule encased in bumpy, glandular greenish phyllaries bearing many golden yellow disc florets at its mouth. Each disc floret is somewhat cylindrical and protruding.
The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long, with a yellowish pappus adding another few millimeters.
Varieties
Isocoma acradenia var. acradenia - Salt scrub, often with creosote - Arizona, California, Nevada, Sonora
Isocoma acradenia var. bracteosa (Greene) G. L. Nesom - salt flats - southern Central Valley in California
Isocoma acradenia var. eremophila (Greene) G. L. Nesom - sandy soils, dunes, etc. - Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Baja California, Sonora).


Isocoma menziesii is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, known by the common name Menzies' goldenbush.
It is native to California, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, where it grows in coastal and inland habitat such as chaparral, particularly in sandy soils.


Isocoma menziesii  is a subshrub forming a matted bush reaching heights of 1–2 m (39–79 in). The erect branching stems may be hairless to woolly, are generally glandular, and vary in color from gray-green to reddish brown.
The leaves are oval-shaped to somewhat rectangular, gray-green and sometimes hairy and glandular, and 1–5 cm (0.39–1.97 in) long with stumpy teeth along the edges.
The abundant inflorescences are clusters of thick flower heads. Each head is a capsule with layers of thick, pointed, greenish phyllaries. The head is filled with large, protruding, cylindrical yellow disc florets with long stigmas.


Isocoma menziesii var. decumbens (Greene) G.L.Nesom - far northern Baja California, San Diego County, Channel Islands
Isocoma menziesii var. diabolica G. L. Nesom - Santa Clara + San Benito Counties
Isocoma menziesii var. menziesii - Baja California, Baja California Sur, San Diego County, Orange County, western Riverside County, Channel Islands
Isocoma menziesii var. sedoides (Greene) G.L.Nesom - from Orange to San Luis Obispo Counties including Channel Islands
Isocoma menziesii var. tridentata (Greene) G.L.Nesom - southern Baja California including Isla Cedros, northern Baja California Sur
Isocoma menziesii var. vernonioides (Nutt.) G.L.Nesom - from Monterey County to northern Baja California


Isodontia mexicana, the Mexican grass-carrying wasp, is a species belonging to the family Sphecidae. It is mainly found throughout North America, but has become established in Europe, primarily France, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, and Spain.
The adults grow up to 18–20 millimetres (0.71–0.79 in) long, the body is completely black, the thorax is quite hairy and the wings have a smoky-brown color. They can be encountered from early Summer through September. Females are larger and emerge as adults later in the season than males.
Isodontia mexicana is a typical case of a species arrived accidentally from North America and slowly encroaching on the European continent, probably for the lack of predators or parasites.
These wasps build their nests in hollowed branches or in other natural cavities, often reusing the nests of other species. Then they line the inside with grass fragments or other plant fibers (hence the name of 'Grass-carrying wasps').
I. mexicana mainly preys on grasshoppers (usually katydids, Tettigoniidae species) or Tree crickets (Gryllidae species), choosing the small ones and carrying them to its nest to feed the emerging larvae with the living, but paralyzed Orthoptera.


Isogona tenuis, the thin-lined owlet, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1872. It is found from Ontario, Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey, south to Florida and Texas.
The wingspan is 28–30 millimetres (1.1–1.2 in). Adults are on wing from May to August in the north and from April to October in the south.
The larvae feed on Celtis species.


Isotenes miserana (orange fruit borer) is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. This species has been introduced to New Zealand.
The wingspan is about 20 mm.
The larvae are considered a pest for flowers and fruit of a wide variety of agricultural plants and fruit trees, including Citrus sinensis, Persea americana, Macadamia integrifolia, Litchi chinensis, Vitis vinifera and Morus species.


Isturgia dislocaria, the pale-veined isturgia moth, is a species of geometrid moth in the family Geometridae. It  first described by Alpheus Spring Packard in 1876 and it is found in North America.
The MONA or Hodges number for Isturgia dislocaria is 6419.


Itea virginica, commonly known as Virginia willow or Virginia sweetspire, is a small North American flowering shrub that grows in low-lying woods and wetland margins. Virginia willow is a member of the Iteaceae family, and native to the southeast United States. Itea virginica has small flowers on pendulous racemes.
Depending on location, the species will bloom in late spring to early summer. It prefers moist rich soil, but it can tolerate a wide range of soil types. When Virginia willow is used in horticulture it can form large colonies and may form dense root suckers, making the shrub hard to remove.


Itea virginica is a deciduous shrub that grows to 2.5 m (8.2 ft) tall and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) broad, with alternate, simple leaves on arching stems. The flowers are white or cream, borne in downward pointing slightly curved spikes, in summer. It is a multi-stemmed, suckering and colonizing plant, with the stems branching infrequently except at the tops. In favorable conditions it may become semi-evergreen. The leaves turn shades of red in fall (autumn). It is hardy down to at least −15 °C (5 °F).


Itea virginica has a current IUCN status of Least Concern. However, Itea virginica is considered extirpated in Pennsylvania and endangered in Indiana.


Itea virginica belongs to the Iteaceae, a family of deciduous and evergreen shrubs. It is the only species in its genus in North America; most Itea species are from east Asia. Some authors have historically placed Virginia sweetspire in the Grossulariaceae or Saxifragaceae families.


In cultivation in the UK the cultivar ‘Henry’s Garnet’ has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. Itea virginica is used as a native ornamental landscape plant in North America, and numerous cultivars have been named. The flowers attract pollinators, and the shrub can be used for erosion control.


The least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis) is a small heron, the smallest member of the family Ardeidae found in the Americas.


The least bittern is one of the smallest herons in the world, with perhaps only the dwarf bittern and the black-backed bittern averaging smaller in length. It can measure from 28 to 36 cm (11 to 14 in) in length, and the wingspan ranges from 41 to 46 cm (16 to 18 in). Body mass is from 51 to 102 g (1.8 to 3.6 oz), with most least bitterns weighing between 73 and 95 g (2.6 and 3.4 oz), making this perhaps the lightest of all herons. A recent manual of avian body masses cites another species in this genus, the stripe-backed bittern, as having a mean body mass slightly lower than the least bittern, which is credited with a mean mass of 86.3 g (3.04 oz).
The bird's underparts and throat are white with light brown streaks. Its face and the sides of the neck are light brown; it has yellow eyes and a yellow bill. The adult male is glossy greenish-black on the back and crown; the adult female is glossy brown on these parts. They show light brown parts on the wings in flight.


The least bittern is an elusive bird. They spend much time straddling reeds. When alarmed, the least bittern freezes in place with its bill pointing up, turns its front and both eyes toward the source of alarm, and sometimes sways to resemble wind-blown marsh vegetation. This is perhaps a predator-avoidance behaviour, since its small size makes the bittern vulnerable to many potential predators. Thanks to its habit of perching among the reeds, the least bittern can feed from the surface of water that would be too deep for the wading strategy of other herons. The least bittern and much larger and different-looking American bittern often occupy the same wetlands but may have relatively little interaction because of differences in foraging habits, preferred prey, and timing of breeding cycles. The least bittern arrives on its breeding grounds about a month after the American bittern and leaves one or two months earlier. John James Audubon noted that a young captive least bittern was able to walk with ease between two books standing 4 cm (1.6 in) apart. When dead, the bird's body measured 5.7 cm (2.2 in) across, indicating that it could compress its breadth to an extraordinary degree.


The least bittern was originally described in 1789 by J. F. Gmelin based on specimens from Jamaica.
The least bittern forms a superspecies with the little bittern and yellow bittern.
There are five widely recognised subspecies.
I. e. exilis (Gmelin, JF, 1789): in north and Central America and the Caribbean
I. e. pullus van Rossem, 1930: in north-west Mexico
I. e. erythromelas (Vieillot, 1817): in eastern Panama and around eastern coasts of South America south to Paraguay
I. e. bogotensis Chapman, 1914: in Colombia
I. e. peruvianus Bond, 1955: in Peru
Birds from Ecuador are sometimes assigned to a sixth subspecies, I. e. limoncochae Norton, DW, 1965. North American birds were formerly divided into two subspecies, eastern (I. e. exilis) and western (I. e. hesperis), but this is no longer believed to be a valid distinction.


A dark rufous morph, I. e. neoxenus, termed "Cory's bittern" or "Cory's least bittern" was originally described by Charles Cory as a separate species in 1885 from a specimen collected on or near the Caloosahatchee River, near Lake Okeechobee, in southwest Florida. Cory stated that the specimen was "without doubt perfectly distinct from any other known species". Further specimens followed over the next decades from Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Ontario.
Initially, Cory's least bittern was accepted as a valid species, with Elliott Coues and Richard Bowdler Sharpe both including it in published species lists. As early as 1892, however, doubts were raised about the validity of Cory's least bittern as a separate species. Nonetheless, in 1896 Frank Chapman wrote a detailed paper supporting its retention as a valid species. Outram Bangs later argued, in 1915, that this view was wrong and proposed that Cory's should become a junior synonym of least bittern. This view eventually prevailed, with the American Ornithologists' Union removing the species from their list of North American birds in 1923, although others held dissenting views until at least 1928.
Cory's least bittern was once fairly common, but it is now exceptionally rare, with only five sightings since 1950. More than 50% of the historical records are from the Toronto region of Ontario. Initially known only from the North American subspecies exilis, it was first recorded in the South America subspecies erthyromelas in 1967.


The bird has a large range and a large total population, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "Least Concern". The least bittern is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.


The little bittern or common little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus) is a wading bird in the heron family, Ardeidae. Ixobrychus is from Ancient Greek ixias, a reed-like plant and brukhomai, to bellow, and minutus is Latin for "small".


The little bittern is native to the Old World, breeding in Africa, central and southern Europe, western and southern Asia, and Madagascar. Birds from temperate regions in Europe and western Asia are migratory, wintering in Africa and further south in Asia, while those nesting in the tropics are sedentary. It is rare north of its breeding range.
In Britain  there were intermittent reports of breeding in the nineteenth century,  and again in 1946 and 1957, but none of these records were proven. The first proven British breeding record is from Yorkshire in 1984, and the second from the Avalon Marshes in Somerset  in  2010, by 2017 this species had been present in this area for nine consecutive years.


Carl Linnaeus described the little bittern in 1766. Member of a cosmopolitan superspecies with I. exilis (North and South America), I. sinensis (Asia) and I. dubius (New Guinea, AUS). I. [m.] minutus itself consists of three clearly differentiated subspecies (groups) to which all-species status could be assigned:
I. m. minutus – (Linnaeus, 1766): nominate, found in Europe, Asia, northern Africa; winters in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia
I. m. payesii – (Hartlaub, 1858): found in sub-Saharan Africa, resident
I. m. podiceps – (Bonaparte, 1855): found in Madagascar, resident
The Australian little bittern (I. dubius) and the extinct New Zealand little bittern (I. novaezelandiae) were formerly considered subspecies of the little bittern.
Comparative studies, especially on shouting / courtship behavior and genetics, are lacking.


The little bittern has a length of 33–38 centimetres (13–15 in) and a wing span of 52–58 centimetres (20–23 in). It is the smallest of the breeding herons of Europe and is characterised by its tiny size, long and sharp bill and thick neck. The males are distinctively patterned and both sexes show pale forewing panels. The males have black with a faint green sheen on the crown, nape, back, tail and scapulars. The underparts are pale buff and the wing has a pinkish buff oval shaped panel which contrasts with the otherwise black wings and is formed by the inner wing coverts. The underwing is completely whiteish in colour. The female is duller than the male and has brownish black upperparts with paler feather margins visible at close range. The underparts of the female are not as clean as those of the male and are streaked with dark buff and brown. The female's wing panel is less obvious than the male's. The juveniles are duller and more rufous than the females and are more heavily streaked on both their upperparts and underparts, including their wing coverts.


Little Bitterns were once widespread in Central Europe. In the meantime it is a poorly distributed breeding bird of the lowlands, sporadically up to low mountain ranges. It occurs from Europe (without regular breeding in Great Britain, Ireland or Scandinavia) to West Siberia up to 56° N. It also occurs in North Africa and southern Iran and south of the Sahara to southern Africa. Isolated populations also exist in Madagascar and Australia. The total population of Europe is about 60,000-120,000 breeding pairs, with occurrences of> 5000 breeding pairs in Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Turkey. In Central Europe (around 2000) about 5300-7800 pairs are breeding, most of it in Hungary. The formerly large population in Germany has decreased to just over 100 breeding pairs. However, inventory information is particularly unreliable for this very secret species.
The little bittern is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.


The little bittern is crepuscular, skulking and normally solitary. It feeds on fishes, amphibians and insects which are caught within reedbeds or at their edges by the bird slowly stalking the prey. The male claims a territory in the Spring, advertising his presence with a deep  barking or croaking call and the monogamous pair remain together for at least one breeding season. Eggs are laid in a nest situated in dense reedbeds, rushes or bushes above the water from the middle of May and there is a single brood which is normally 5-6 eggs. These are incubated for 17–19 days and the chicks are fledged after 25–30 days.
In Europe the little bittern is a migratory species, crossing the Mediterranean from Africa in the early Spring and arriving in their breeding wetlands from mid April onwards. The return to Africa occurs in August and September and there are normally only a few juveniles left in Europe by October. The European breeders migrate as far south as the Eastern Cape and Transvaal.


The jabiru (/ˌdʒæbɪˈruː/ or /ˈdʒæbɪruː/; Latin: Jabiru mycteria) is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has been reported as far north as Mississippi.  It is most common in the Pantanal region of Brazil and the Eastern Chaco region of Paraguay.  It is the only member of the genus Jabiru.  The name comes from a Tupi–Guaraní language and means "swollen neck".


Hinrich Lichtenstein described the jabiru in 1819. The name jabiru has also been used for two other birds of a distinct genus: black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus), commonly called "jabiru" in Australia; and sometimes also for the saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis) of Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, Gardiner's Egyptian hieroglyph G29, believed to depict an E. senegalensis, is sometimes labeled "jabiru" in hieroglyph lists. The Ephippiorhynchus are believed to be the jabiru's closest living cousins, indicating an Old World origin for the species.
The proposed Late Pleistocene fossil stork genus Prociconia from Brazil might actually belong in Jabiru. A fossil species of jabiru was found in the early Pliocene Codore Formation near Urumaco, Venezuela, and named Jabiru codorensis.
In Portuguese, the bird is called tuiuiu, tuim-de-papo-vermelho ("red-necked tuim", in Mato Grosso) and cauauá (in the Amazon Basin).  The name jabiru is used for the wood stork (Mycteria americana).


The jabiru is the tallest flying bird found in South America and Central America, often standing nearly the same height as the flightless and thus much heavier greater rhea. For the continent, it also has the second largest wingspan, after the Andean condor (that is, excluding the great albatross occasionally found off the coast of southern South America). The adult jabiru is 120–140 cm (47–55 in) long, 2.3–2.8 m (7.5–9.2 ft) across the wings, and can weigh 4.3–9 kg (9.5–19.8 lb). Sexual dimorphism is high, possibly the highest of any stork, with males being about 25% larger than females. Males weigh an average of 6.89 kg (15.2 lb) whereas females weigh an average of 5.22 kg (11.5 lb). Large males may stand as tall as 1.53 m (5.0 ft). The beak, which measures 25–35 cm (9.8–13.8 in), is black and broad, slightly upturned, ending in a sharp point. Among other standard measurements, the tail measures 20–25 cm (7.9–9.8 in), the tarsus measures 28.5–39 cm (11.2–15.4 in) long and the wing chord measures 58.5–73 cm (23.0–28.7 in). The plumage is mostly white, but the head and upper neck are featherless and black, with a featherless red stretchable pouch at the base. The sexes are similar in appearance but the male is larger, which can be noticeable when the sexes are together. While it can give the impression of being an ungainly bird on the ground, the jabiru is a powerful and graceful flier.