Wall. ex D.Don
Description
Iris kemaonensis is a dwarf alpine iris of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed across Pakistan, Nepal, NW India, Bhutan and SW China, with 346 GBIF occurrences. It grows on open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, stony pastures and recently snow-freed ground in the upper subalpine to alpine zone. The cited collections from Kalmura in West Nepal at about 4,200 m and Kinkhola in Garhwal at 3,545 m, both in June, are characteristic of its early-summer flowering as snow melts on high turf, where it forms low scattered clumps.
It is a rhizomatous perennial with a short, stout, branching rhizome bearing fibrous remains of old leaves. The leaves are linear-ensiform, appearing with or shortly after the flowers and elongating considerably as the fruit ripens. The flowers are usually solitary and almost sessile at ground level, lilac to pale purple, mottled and spotted with deeper purple; the falls are obovate with a yellow or white beard along the median crest, the standards smaller and erect. The perianth tube is long and slender, raising the flower above the spathes. The fruit is a trigonous capsule, often borne on an elongating stalk emerging after anthesis.
The species belongs to Iris subgen. Pseudoregelia, the bearded, mottled-flowered, rhizomatous group centred on the Himalaya and Central Asia. GBIF records it as accepted. It is a charismatic, ground-hugging alpine bearing close ecological resemblance to other cushion-meadow geophytes, and remains widespread and unthreatened, though locally subject to grazing pressure.
Author: Wall. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Mathew: The Iris (1989)