What are the other names for Iris lactea?

Other Names for Iris lactea

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

The Role and Value of Iris lactea

Iris lactea is salt-alkali tolerant and trampling tolerant, with a well-developed root system. It grows on wasteland, 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 straw-weaving material, and it is relatively common in grassland areas.

The Flower Language and Legend of Iris lactea

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

Iris lactea is commonly known as Malian flower or Malan flower, 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, which expresses the hope 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 covered on the outside with a large amount of dense, red-purple broken old leaf remnants, leaf sheaths, 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, and a red-purple tinge, with no obvious midvein.

The flowering stem is smooth, 3-10 cm tall; the bracts number 3-5, herbaceous, green, with white edges, lanceolate, 4.5-10 cm long and 0.8-1.6 cm wide, with 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 segments are oblanceolate, 4.5-6.5 cm long and 0.8-1.2 cm wide, with obtuse or acute apex and a wedge-shaped claw, the inner perianth segments 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 soil requirements. 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 degrees C and can also resist high temperatures of 40 degrees C. In northern regions, it can overwinter and pass the summer normally.

Its roots and leaves have drought-resistant structures. Generally, it only needs watering 2-3 times a year to grow normally, flower, and set seed.

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 when mixed with other vegetation, disasters also rarely occur. 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 wasteland, roadsides, and hillside grasslands, and is especially abundant on overgrazed salinized grasslands. It is also found 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-desertified areas of northern China.

Appreciation of Iris lactea Pictures