Tribe Irideae Rank Species | Subfamily Iridoideae | |
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Similar Iris winkleri, Iris maracandica, Iris fosteriana | ||
Iris kolpakowskiana (or 'Kolpakowski's Iris') is a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Hermodactyloides and section Monolepsis. It is a bulbous perennial.
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It is pronounced kol-pa-kow-skee-AY-nuh. Sometimes called 'Iris kolpakowskyana'. It was named after the first Russian military Governor of Semirechye Oblast in modern Kazakhstan Gerasim Alexeevich Kolpakovsky. See also Sun Tulip or Kolpakowski Tulip.
The iris was first described by Regel in the Botanical Magazine No.6489 (1880).
Iris kolpakowskiana is now an accepted name by the RHS.
Habit
Its leaves are similar to the iris of the genus Scorpiris, although it has only a few leaves at flowering time, up to 5 cm tall, which then increase up to 30 cm later.
It has pale lilac to pale purple flowers with dark reddish purple falls and yellow orange ridge, coming out in late winter. It flowers in March in the UK.
Native
Iris kolpakowskiana is from the Tien Shan Mountains, Turkestan. where it is found on hillsides (up to 3000m above sea level). It grows in wet sticky clay that dries out in summer. It is also found in Kyrgyzstan. It was on the 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants.