Iris missouriensis

Western blue flag, Western Blue Flag

Family: Iridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western blue flag is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, southern Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Great Basin in vernally moist grassy or rocky areas at elevations of 900 to 3,400 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces pale lilac to nearly white flowers with lilac-purple veining, 4 to 7 centimeters long with broad, widely oblanceolate petals. Growing with rarely branched stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall from a thick rhizome 20 to 30 millimeters in diameter, it emerges from underground root structures. Its basal leaves are 3 to 9 millimeters wide, with the base sometimes tinged purple, and cauline leaves reduced to bract-like structures along most of the stem length. The flowers feature large sepals 4 to 7 centimeters long and 18 to 22 millimeters wide, with distinctive style branches 25 to 35 millimeters long.

Habitat: Vernally moist grassy or rocky areas

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 900-3400 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, SN, SCoRI, TR, PR, GB

California counties: Mono, Inyo, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, San Benito, Ventura, Kern, San Diego, Modoc, San Francisco, San Mateo, Monterey, Lassen, Sonoma, Mendocino, Plumas, Marin, Solano, Santa Clara, Shasta, Humboldt, Butte, Madera, Mariposa, Tulare, Nevada, El Dorado, Fresno, Sierra, Glenn, Colusa, Tuolumne, Lake, Del Norte, Alpine

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