Pale iris

Family Cruciferae. Grows wild in the south of Western Europe (the Alps).

Leaves sword-shaped, glaucous due to a waxy bloom, up to 60 cm long. Flower stalk up to 80 cm tall, branched in the upper part. Flowers large, almost sessile, fragrant, pale blue. The bracts are membranous. Blooms in early June. It dislikes excessive moisture. Its dried rhizomes are called violet root. In the middle zone it overwinters without shelter. The fruit is an elongated, triangular capsule with numerous flattened seeds. In cultivation since 1827. The photograph shows the cultivar 'Aureovariegata'.

Cultivated forms have recently been successfully displacing the Florentine from industrial plantations in Italy, since they give a higher yield of "violet root". It has been repeatedly introduced from Italy and France into the essential-oil farms of Crimea and Moldova. It is one of the main ancestors of cultivated irises of the tall bearded group. It reliably transmits in hybridization the traits: structure of the bracts, pleasant fragrance of the flowers, a tall unbranched flower stalk. In the northern and northwestern areas of the European part of Russia it easily fails in cultivation, as it is sensitive to excessively waterlogged acidic soils, and requires winter protection.