Iris foetidissima

Coral iris, Coral Iris

Family: Iridaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Coral iris is a naturalized perennial found in southern San Francisco Bay and southern Sacramento Valley ranch areas in damp, lightly shaded environments at elevations of 300 to 1,400 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces pale yellow to brown flowers with red-brown or green veining, featuring sepals 3 to 5 centimeters long and petals 3 to 4 centimeters long. Growing with branched stems 25 to 40 centimeters tall, it emerges from a rhizome 9 to 14 millimeters in diameter. Its leaves produce a distinctive fetid odor when crushed, with basal leaves up to 35 millimeters wide and 2 to 4 cauline leaves similar in structure. When mature, the plant produces distinctive globular seeds that are generally bright red.

Habitat: Damp areas in light shade

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 300-1400 m

Bioregions: s ScV (ranches only), SnFrB

California counties: Alameda, Marin, Solano, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.