Iris kirkwoodiae
Description
Description
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The forms of *Iris kirkwoodiae* are between *[Iris gatesii](/wiki/Iris_gatesii "Iris gatesii")* and the also dark\-veined *[Iris sofarana](/wiki/Iris_sofarana "Iris sofarana")*.British Iris Society (1997\)  It is also very similar in form to *[Iris susiana](/wiki/Iris_susiana "Iris susiana")*.

It has a stout and compact rhizome, which is stoloniferous and between  long, underneath the rhizome are long secondary roots, which help feed the plant mineral salts from the soil.

It has 6\-7 leaves, which grow up  tall and between  wide, They are falcate, or sickle shaped.

It is tall, growing up to between  tall.

It blooms between April and May, with large,Basak Gardner \& Chris Gardner  sphere\-like flowers. It was determined that the plants found in Maras, Turkey seem to have the largest flowered forms. It has a faint pleasant scent.

The flowers are between  in diameter, and come in shades of beige, white or pale greenish ground, which is covered with violet, or dark purple veins and spots.

Like other irises, it has 2 pairs of petals, 3 large [sepals](/wiki/Sepals "Sepals") (outer petals), known as the 'falls' and 3 inner, smaller petals (or [tepals](/wiki/Tepals "Tepals")), known as the 'standards'. The standards are generally paler than the falls. The standards are  long and are  wide. The deflexed falls, have a deep purple round or obovate signal patch, and in the centre of the fall, is a sparse, purple or brownish\-purple beard. Occasionally forms have a red\-brown or yellow beard.

It has [style arms](/wiki/Stigma_%28botany%29%23Style "Stigma (botany)#Style") which have erect or reflexed lobes.

After it has flowered, it produces a seed capsule that is about  long.

### Genetics

As most irises are [diploid](/wiki/Diploid "Diploid"), having two sets of [chromosomes](/wiki/Chromosomes "Chromosomes"), this can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings.
It was counted as 2n\=20, by Avishai and Zohary in 1977\.


What type of beard does Iris kirkwoodiae have, and what colors can it be?