Sunday, January 8, 2012

Purple flag (Iris germanica)



Iris germanica or commonly known as purple flag or just iris (κρινάκι ή ίριδα), belongs to the Iridaceae family. One of its main characteristics is the beard of hair in the middle of the petal. It has beautiful flower that appears both in white and purple. The leaves and the rhizome contain irisin a substance that can cause irritanion of the digestive system. I saw those ones while hiking near Vradeto (Epirus) and the white one in my garden.
In ancient Greek mythology Iris was personification of the rainbow and a messenger.

6 comments:

Joop Zand said...

Lovely blue....very good pictures.

Greetings, Joop

Greece's Flora said...

thank you joob!!

CameraCruise said...

Gorgeous shots of the beautiful flower!
Iris is one of my favorite flowers.
I've tried for years to grow them in my garden,
but no success so far.
Thanks for sharing.
Greetings Mette

Dani P. said...

Πολύ μου αρέσει αυτό το λουλούδι. Αλλά στην φύση δεν το είδα. Κάτι άλλα, πιο λεπτοκαμωμένα, φυτρώνουν στην περιοχή μου.

Greece's Flora said...

μόλις ανακάλυψα και μια πιο παλιά φωτογραφία με ένα λευκό!! Εγώ αυτά τα βρήκα στο Ζαγόρι, μοιάζει πολύ με το Ιris inguicularis οπότε μπορεί να είναι αυτό στην περιοχή σου.

Greece's Flora said...

Dear Mette we used to have the white ones in my garden and they were multiplying so much that they "infested" the whole garden and my mum decided to throw them away... Maybe you could grow them in a pot and bring them indoors when it gets colder...