Very nice picture!
Regards Vijayasankar Raman National Center for Natural Products Research University of Mississippi On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 8:04 PM, Dr Pankaj Kumar <[email protected]>wrote: > Wonderful beauty of nature. Nice colouration too. > Thanks for sharing sir. > Best regards > Pankaj > > > On Tuesday, 1 January 2013 01:29:41 UTC+8, Gurcharan Singh wrote: >> >> Presenting my flora picture of the Year 2012,* Iris japonica*, the >> fringed iris or butterfly flower. >> >> I had known about several species of Iris being grown in Kashmir to >> decorate graveyards and as ornamentals, and a few forming enormous meadows >> both in the valley (Iris lactea, which for a long time was identified as >> I.ensata) and alpine hills (I. hookeriana). These species were mostly >> possesed by me in the form of dried speciments. I missed photograhing these >> in previous years as they are early flowering plants, and I would miss >> their flowering. This year I planned an early visit to Kashmir to catch >> these and other similar flowers. Luckily I was able to catch almost all, >> but my prized click was this species which I found in gardens for the first >> time in Kashmir. >> Despite its scientific name, the plant is neither a native of Japan >> (rather being a native of China), nor bearing the common name Japanese iris >> (which belongs to Iris ensata). >> The plant is a rhizomatous perennial with sword-shaped leaves up to >> 60 cm long, up to cm wide, without midvein; flowers pale blue to white, 4-6 >> cm across, with fringed falls spotted with purple and orange crusts, up to >> 1.5 cm long spathe, up to 2.5 cm long pedicel and perianth tube shorter >> than 1.5 cm, flowers are arranged on much branched stems. >> Photographed from Botanical Garden below Cheshma Shahi in Kashmir. >> >> The species has been widely cultivated in different parts of the world >> and has been given 'Award of Garden Merit' by Royal Horticultural Society. >> >> >> >> -- >> Dr. Gurcharan Singh >> Retired Associate Professor >> SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 >> Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. >> Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 >> http://www.gurcharanfamily.**com/ <http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/> >> http://people.du.ac.in/~**singhg45/ <http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/> >> > -- > > > > --
