Psedua-what? Falling Down the Iris Pseudata rabbit-hole

 Two years ago, we planted our first few iris pseudata... starting with 'Yukiyanagi', 'Alabama Blue Fin' and 'Yarai'. All of them grew so much in the last two years that they have needed to be divided and moved. In 2024, we acquired quite a few more, including the ones in the photos below. 'Alabama Blue Fin' might get the grower-of-the-year award after more than doubling in size in less than a season! 

 So what's the big deal about iris pseudata? For one thing, it is a species cross (sometimes written SPECX) between iris pseudacorus and iris ensata (images below). From this combination you achieve tremendous vigor from the pseudacorus, and you get color variation and richness from the ensata.  

'Ause' (Carol Warner, R. 2014) SPEC-X (pseudata)

 

One of the most reliable pseudata/pseudacorus parents is 'Gubijin'. Not a true pseudacorus, with an odd chromosome count of 2n=35. However, it is happy to be the pod parent for nearly all pseudatas made in the last twenty years. What is fascinating is that the reverse cross is nearly impossible. There are virtually no pseudata crosses where ensata is the pod parent. It doesnt help things that the two irises bloom at offset times from one another. If that timing is off and one plant is blooming and the other isn't... there's nowhere to put that pollen, or no pollen to dab onto the pod-parent. 

'Gubijin', iris pseudacorus, Hiroshi Shimizu, R. 1999

'Cascade Crest' (J. Terry Aitken, R. 1988)

Three years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. I picked out a couple of pseudatas because everything I was reading said that they were sterile, robust and absurdly hardy. Sounded good to me. Last year, we picked up 'Ause' and 'Yasha' which are darker pink pseudatas. Really striking. Very long blooming times too. As luck would have it, they bloomed spectacularly on their first year in the garden. Surprise!

 That got me thinking that it might be fun to try making some of these pseudatas too. That became a seriously deep rabbit hole. Midway through the spring, I found myself in Iowa, at the Siberian iris convention... and one of the irises being auctioned off was the latest pseudata from Jill Copeland called 'Persistence Paid Off'. I immediately popped open the iris wiki on my phone and started looking it up. I had never heard of it. Turns out, there was a reason. It had just been released. And Ensata.com (who had just this spring, closed due to retirement) had the only plants for sale. Two were offered at the convention and they were swiftly sold for wonderfully high prices. Sigh. Why was it such a big deal? Instead of being a diploid pseudata, Jill had treated the parent plants with colchicine, which made them tetraploid. What this did was make the new iris fertile (with other tetraploid pseduatas and tet ensatas, etc).   

 

'Yasha' (Hiroshi Shimizu by Carol Warner, R. 2010) SPEC-X (Pseudata)

Bit by by, I found myself curious about what I might be able to do with these pseudatas. Could I cross them with other irises? Could I combine their enormous height and vigor with other varieties of iris? 

What I learned in the summer was that they are genuinely sterile. They are mules. Not a horse, not a donkey. Iris mule. The male sex parts of the iris are deformed. For the most part, on pseudatas, the anthers are genuinely malformed. They are tiny and devoid of pollen sacks. The upside (from a marketing perspective) is that the cut flowers wont shed pollen on your kitchen table. Yay for clean flowers. From a hybridizer's perspective, that makes them a dead-end. No pollen = no new crosses.

 

'Byakuya No Kumi',  Hiroshi Shimizu by Carol Warner, R. 2005

At least that is where things were until August. 

 

'Ryugan' (Hiroshi Shimizu by Carol Warner, R. 2008)

I'll save the details of my visit to Michigan in August of this year for another post. Suffice it to say, that the long drive gave me a lot of opportunity to think about what the possibilities could be with tetraploid pseudatas. More on that in my next post. For now, enjoy this gorgeous image of Jill Copeland's 'Persistence Paid Off'. It is a winner!
 

'Persistence Paid Off' (Jill Copeland, R. 2024).

 

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