About Iris vartanii Foster
Iris vartanii Foster is a plant species in the genus Iris, placed within subgenus Hermodactyloides and section Reticulatae. It is a bulbous perennial; it was once thought to belong to Iris subgenus Xiphium. Common alternative names for this species include 'Vartanni Iris' and 'Iris vartani'.
This species was first described in 1885 in Gardeners' Chronicle, and an illustration numbered 6942 was published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine two years later. It was named by Sir Michael Foster in honor of Dr. Kaloost Vartan of Nazareth. Dr. Vartan discovered this iris while working in Palestine, in the foothills surrounding Nazareth, and sent the specimen to Foster for classification. The original description noted the plant as brown in color, a detail that likely came from specimen deterioration during transportation.
Iris vartanii was originally discovered near the city of Nazareth in Israel, and has also been found in Jordan and Syria, growing on rocky hillsides. It occurs across multiple Levantine regions: Golan, Galilee, Mount Carmel, the Samarian desert and the Judean Mountains. According to Dr Dawud Al-Eisawi's 1998 book Field Guide to Wild Flowers of Jordan, the species is now considered extinct in Jordan.
