Nearctica - Eastern Wildflowers - Iridaceae - Slender Blue Flag (Iris prismatica)

Slender Blue Flag

(Iris prismatica)

Color Photograph: NRCS Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

Iris versicolor

The leaves of Larger Blue Flag are broader and larger, not grasslike.

Iris cristata

The crests of Crested Dwarf Iris are yellow, not violet.

Iris verna

Dwarf Iris lacks crests.

Slender Blue Flag (Iris prismatica)

Identification: Flowers violet, complicated in structure with petals and sepals all showy. Flower with 3 lower "sepals" hanging downward, base with a violet shoehorn-like appendage (crest). "Sepals" heavily veined with violet and a basal patch of yellow. Upper 3 "petals" narrow and pointing generally upward. Seed pods elongate, ovate. Leaves narrow, elongate, grasslike, flattened and overlaping each other. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Distribution: Found mostly along the Atlantic Coast from Nova Scotia to Georgia.

Habitat: Slender Blue Flag is found in coastal marshes.

Flowering period: May to July.

Slender Blue Flag (Iris prismatica)

Similar Species:

Larger Blue Flag (Iris versicolor)

Crested Dwarf Iris (Iris cristata)

Dwarf Iris (Iris verna)

Similar Species