Iris milesii - Red Flower Iris

Red Flower Iris is easily distinguished by its stout branched inflorescence with large flowers up to 8 cm across, pale mauve with dark veins and blotches, and with obovate falls with a pale much-cut crest. It is named so probably because of the reddish hue on the flowers. Rhizomes are thick, fleshy, greenish, annular scars left by earlier year's growth prominent. Rhizome bears a terminal leafy flowering stem and two lateral non-flowering leafy stems. The lateral stems become active shoots for next year's growth thus the old and the new rhizomes result in a series of dichotomies. Basal leaves 30-60 cm long, 3-7 cm wide, ribs prominent, pale-green. Branched flowering stems 30-90 cm tall, bearing shorter leaves than the sterile shoots. Bracts (in fruits) are about 2.5 cm. Flower are about 6-10 cm in diameter, pinkish-violet with darker spots. Falls with fringed yellow crest. Capsule are beaked, with beak 2.8-3.0 cm long, ovoid-cylindrical, about 3.1-3.3 cm long. Flowering.: May-July.