This hardy perennial receives its name from its color but it has several other common names such as water flag, fleur-de-lis or flower-de-luce. It thrives in wet, swampy conditions, and is found in marshes, thickets, and wet meadows from Newfoundland to Manitoba and south to Florida and Arkansas. At Cape St. Mary's near the gannet colony in late spring and early July, one can find extensive fields of this delightful flower lending a quiet beauty to that landscape.
Years ago in the springtime, I visited a mountain valley in northern Wyoming with my boyfriend and his father. His father had rented the land for summer pasture for cattle. Blue flags were in bloom all across the high meadow, standing in shallow water left from the melted snow.
ReplyDeleteI have decided those blue flags of Wyoming were Iris missouriensis (Rocky Mountain iris) after referring to these maps of iris distribution.