LILIES, as scarce as spectacular

1996/07/01 Terés, Joxepo Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Botanika

With the family that forms this beautiful plant we will continue to know the summer flora of our environment. This large monocotyledonic family is especially known as a garden plant, but it also occupies a place in the native vegetation of Euskal Herria and deserves a special mention. About 70 genera are known on our planet, mainly in tropical and temperate zones. In Europe, for its part, 6 genera have been mentioned and in our territory 4 genera, although one or the other is naturalized and some are hybrid.

As for the genus Iris, in the northern hemisphere 250 species are known, 30 in Europe and 4 in the Basque Country ( I. foetidissima, I. pseudacorus, I. gramíneas and I. latifolia), although sometimes some species have been naturalized as the common Ostazalelar ( I. germanica). One of the characteristics of these lilies is certainly the shape of the flower, really spectacular. It consists of 6 tepals and the three appendices of the floral needles are expanded and colored, simulating the tepals and folding them above them. As has been said, the beauty of the flower makes this genus widely used as ornament. Numerous hybrids have been formed and rhizomes of some species are used to make perfume.

On the other hand, the lily under study ( Iris latifolia) is a 30-75 cm plant. The leaves below the stem are caulinares, long and narrow and are born in spring. The flowers, on the other hand, are large, composed of two in two and appear between May and August. Purple with an orange yellow stripe on the outer tepals. This plant is very scarce in the Basque Country, especially in the herbaceous slopes and in the pastures and forest areas of the highest mountain ranges. It highlights its spectacular beauty in rocky pastures in the central Pyrenees, where it is abundant.

Finally, it should be noted that this interesting species has obtained numerous forms and varieties, known as English lilies, very used for ornamentation.

Family: Iridazeos Species: Iris latifolia (I. xiphiodes) Distribution: very rare Habitat: different grasslands and in forest areas on the highest slopes of the marshes Medicinal herb: no