What plant is Iris lactea? Introducing the herbaceous plant Iris lactea

Other names of Iris lactea

Iris lactea, also called Iris lactea, Iris lactea, Iris lactea flower, Hanpu, Lishi, Licao, Jucao, Shishou, Sanjian, and Iris lactea. It is a perennial herbaceous rhizomatous plant belonging to the genus Iris in the family Iridaceae.

The role and value of Iris lactea

Iris lactea is salt-alkali tolerant, trampling tolerant, and has a well-developed root system. It grows in wastelands, roadsides, hillside grasslands, and saline-alkali meadows. It can be used for soil and water conservation, the improvement of saline-alkali land and industrial wasteland, and as ground cover, edging, or specimen planting in landscaping.

The whole plant can be used as medicine and has the effects of clearing heat, stopping bleeding, and detoxifying.

The leaves can be used as binding and grass-weaving materials, and it is relatively common in grassland areas.

The flower language and legend of Iris lactea

The flower language of Iris lactea is: lover of a past life, messenger of love.

Iris lactea is commonly known as Iris lactea flower or Iris lactea, and is also called Zhu Yingtai flower. In legend, Iris lactea is the flower transformed from Zhu Yingtai, who could not stay with Liang Shanbo. Its shape resembles a butterfly, and it is a messenger that conveys love. The existence of Iris lactea is full of legend and tragic heroism.

To this day, Greeks often plant this flower in cemeteries, hoping that the soul of the deceased can be entrusted to Iris to bring it back to heaven.

Morphological characteristics of Iris lactea

Iris lactea is a perennial densely tufted herb.

The rhizome is thick and strong, woody, slanting, and externally covered with a large amount of dense red-purple residual leaf sheaths from broken old leaves and hair-like fibers; the fibrous roots are thick and long, yellow-white, and sparsely branched. The leaves are basal, tough, gray-green, linear or narrowly sword-shaped, about 50 cm long and 4-6 mm wide, with acuminate apex, sheath-like base, tinged with red-purple, and no obvious midvein.

The flowering stem is smooth, 3-10 cm tall; the bracts are 3-5, herbaceous, green, with white edges, lanceolate, 4.5-10 cm long and 0.8-1.6 cm wide, with an acuminate or long-acuminate apex, containing 2-4 flowers inside; the flowers are blue, 5-6 cm in diameter; the pedicel is 4-7 cm long; the perianth tube is very short, about 3 mm long, the outer perianth lobes are oblanceolate, 4.5-6.5 cm long and 0.8-1.2 cm wide, with an obtuse or acute apex and a wedge-shaped claw, the inner perianth lobes are narrowly oblanceolate, 4.2-4.5 cm long and 5-7 mm wide, with a narrowly wedge-shaped claw; the stamens are 2.5-3.2 cm long, the anthers are yellow, and the filaments are white; the ovary is spindle-shaped, 3-4.5 cm long.

The capsule is long-elliptic and columnar, 4-6 cm long and 1-1.4 cm in diameter, with 6 obvious ribs and a short beak at the apex; the seeds are irregular polyhedra, brown, and slightly glossy. The flowering period is May-June, and the fruiting period is June-September.

Growth habits of Iris lactea

Iris lactea has no strict requirements for soil. As long as there is a certain soil layer, it can grow normally in various types of soil. It can withstand extreme low temperatures of -30°C and can also resist high temperatures of 40°C. In northern regions, it can overwinter and pass the summer normally.

Its roots and leaves have drought-resistant structures. Generally, watering only 2-3 times a year is enough for normal growth, flowering, and seed production.

It is extremely salt-alkali tolerant. Seeds can germinate normally under conditions with a salt content of 0.4%, and plants can grow and develop normally under a salt content of 0.5% and a pH value below 8.8.

It has extremely strong resistance to pests, diseases, and rodent damage. Generally, Iris lactea seeds or vegetation never suffer from pests, diseases, or rodent damage, and disasters rarely occur even when mixed with other vegetation. However, under dry, high-temperature, barren, and harsh environmental conditions, the aboveground growth of Iris lactea will decrease, while the root system will become more developed to ensure its normal survival in adverse environments.

Distribution of Iris lactea

Iris lactea is native to Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Tibet in China.

It grows in wastelands, roadsides, and hillside grasslands, especially in overgrazed saline-alkali grasslands, and is also produced in Korea, the former Soviet Union, and India.

Iris lactea has an extremely wide natural distribution, a well-developed root system, extremely strong resistance and adaptability, and salt-alkali tolerance. These characteristics determine that it is very suitable for soil and water conservation and the greening and improvement of saline-alkali land in the dry-climate and soil-desertification areas of northern China.

Appreciation of Iris lactea pictures