Iris purdyi

Purdy's iris

Family: Iridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Purdy's iris is a California native perennial found in northern coastal California (NCoRO) on grassy or rocky slopes at the edge of Douglas-fir or redwood forests, typically at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces distinctive pale cream-yellow or rose-violet flowers with prominent brown-violet veins, with large sepals 5 to 7 centimeters long and 15 to 23 millimeters wide. Growing with unbranched stems 6 to 25 centimeters tall from a rhizome 4 to 6 millimeters in diameter, it develops basal leaves 5 to 11 millimeters wide. Its leaves are minimal, with 0 to 5 bract-like cauline leaves that are generally overlapped. The flower's intricate perianth tube measures 35 to 60 millimeters long, with style branches 35 to 45 millimeters long featuring truncate or rounded crests with minutely toothed margins.

Habitat: Common. Grassy or rocky slopes on edge of Douglas-fir or redwood forests

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: generally < 1200 m

Bioregions: NCoRO.

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Tehama, Trinity, Sonoma, Shasta, Siskiyou, Los Angeles

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