Iris spuriaL.

Blue Irisseashore iris

WFO wfo-0000783889 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Iris spuria, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. a Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-05-11 / obs. 92948908
Iris spuria, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. b Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / obs. 152641202
Iris spuria, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. c Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / obs. 152641231
Iris spuria, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. d Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157618796
Iris spuria, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. e Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92949067
Iris spuria, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. f Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157618747
Iris spuria, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. g Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92949039
Iris spuria, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. h Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92948954

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 11 botanical countries

Regions where Iris spuria is native: Iran, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Austria, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden IranNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAustriaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyHungarySweden
Native distribution of Iris spuria, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Austria AUT EUROPE
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Sweden SWE
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 266 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -4.2 °C -3.2 °C -1.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.8 °C 26.4 °C 27.5 °C
Annual rainfall 551 mm 596 mm 650 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 93 mm 99 mm 130 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 266 research-grade observations of Iris spuria that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 36 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chamaeiris carthaliniae (Fomin) M.B.Crespo
  • Chamaeiris prilipkoana (Kem.-Nath.) M.B.Crespo
  • Chamaeiris spuria (L.) Medik.
  • Chamaeiris spuria var. danica (Dykes) M.B.Crespo
  • Chamaeiris violacea (Klatt) M.B.Crespo
  • Chamaeiris xanthospuria (B.Mathew & T.Baytop) M.B.Crespo
  • Iris cardiopetala Borbás
  • Iris carthaliniae Fomin
  • Iris daenensis Kotschy ex Baker
  • Iris demetrii Achv. & Mirzoeva
  • Iris gueldenstadtiana subsp. subbarbata (Joó) Nyman
  • Iris gueldenstaedtiana subsp. subbarbata (Joó) Nyman
  • Iris klattii Kem.-Nath.
  • Iris musulmanica Fomin
  • Iris prilipkoana Kem.-Nath.
  • Iris sordida Retz.
  • Iris spathacea J.St.-Hil. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Iris spathulata Lam.
  • Iris spuria subsp. dierinckii (K.Koch ex Baker) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Iris spuria subsp. subbarbata (Joó) C.E.Lundstr.
  • Iris spuria var. daenensis (Kotschy ex Baker) Baker
  • Iris spuria var. danica Dykes
  • Iris spuria var. dierinckii K.Koch ex Baker
  • Iris spuria var. major Rchb.

and 12 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.