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Iris latifolia; photograph Jeffdelonge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAJeffdelonge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss

Iridaceae · France, Spain · listed by its genus as a bulb, tuber or caudex

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Iris latifolia, photograph fjseb at https://www.flickr.com., CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIris latifolia, photograph Xemenendura, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIris latifolia, photograph Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIris latifolia, photograph Valugi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIris latifolia, photograph Valugi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIris latifolia, photograph Valugi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-8.5°C
Record low -14.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
20°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,411mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Iris latifolia, the English iris, also known as I. xiphiodes and I. anglica, is a hardy flowering bulbous species of the Iris genus, in the family Iridaceae. It is native to the Pyrenees of Southwestern France and Northwestern Spain. It is widely cultivated in temperate regions for its purple flowers which appear in early Summer.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Iris latifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the genus Iris in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,061 mm of 1,404 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 15.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.

Rain

1,404 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,061 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month December at 156 mm, driest month July at 73 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 870 mm to 1,853 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,411 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,404 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -8.5 °C, the absolute minimum -14.9 °C, 6,348 frost nights in 44 years, 144.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -9.5 °C to 0.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +655 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Iris in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Iris latifolia through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 20 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -3.9 °C; 1,404 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost30.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-14.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 10–41RH 59–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 391 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -2–84 / -1–97 / 2–129 / 3–1413 / 8–1717 / 13–2120 / 16–2520 / 16–2417 / 12–2112 / 8–177 / 2–124 / -1–9
Night °C-4 / -10–1-4 / -9–1-2 / -7–30 / -5–53 / -1–87 / 3–1210 / 6–1410 / 6–148 / 3–124 / -1–80 / -6–4-3 / -9–2
Rain mm128 / 68–18695 / 55–150105 / 57–151137 / 91–182134 / 83–17392 / 56–12673 / 36–10683 / 40–117103 / 66–142143 / 88–197155 / 87–217156 / 83–231
DLI12 / 10–1518 / 16–2226 / 24–3033 / 31–3637 / 35–4041 / 38–4341 / 38–4436 / 34–3929 / 27–3119 / 17–2213 / 11–1610 / 8–13
RH %61 / 56–6661 / 57–6461 / 58–6263 / 60–6462 / 59–6460 / 58–6459 / 55–6359 / 56–6360 / 58–6262 / 60–6462 / 58–6661 / 57–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 391 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (807 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 942:3464 (42.875, -6.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 391 distinct grid cells holding 807 of the 809 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 942:3464 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-6.875, lapse-corrected +655 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1501 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the keys of the names Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 2748061 (Xiphion latifolium Mill., 514 records), 5297960 (Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss, 2000 records), 5297965 (Iris xiphioides Ehrh., 175 records), 9238130 (Iris xiphium subsp. xiphioides Bonnier & Layens, 0 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeFrance, Spain · introduced: Great Britain · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker42.753, 0.092 · in the densest population, 671 records (71% of those in range)
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 949 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 807 of them in the land cells it reads, of 809 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 498 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 140 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 2748061 (Xiphion latifolium Mill.): Kew's file holds it as Xiphion latifolium Mill. (synonym under Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss); 514 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 5297960 (Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss): Kew's file holds it as Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss (accepted); 2,000 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 5297965 (Iris xiphioides Ehrh.): Kew's file holds it as Iris xiphioides Ehrh. (illegitimate under Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss); 175 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 9238130 (Iris xiphium subsp. xiphioides Bonnier & Layens): Kew's file holds it as Iris xiphium subsp. xiphioides Bonnier & Layens (synonym under Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 949 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Iris latifolia, photograph 1did not loadIris latifolia, photograph 2did not loadIris latifolia, photograph 3did not loadIris latifolia, photograph 4did not loadIris latifolia, photograph 5did not loadIris latifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: fjseb at https://www.flickr.com., CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Xemenendura, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Valugi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Aquilegia pyrenaica Aquilegia pyrenaica Pyrenean columbine Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauPinguicula grandiflora Pinguicula grandiflora Large-flowered Butterwort Photo: CC BY, frangpBupleurum angulosum Bupleurum angulosum Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, frangp Hieracium cerinthoides Asteraceae Eryngium bourgatii Eryngium bourgatii Amethyst Eryngo Photo: CC BY-SA, Benoit NABHOLZLilium pyrenaicum Lilium pyrenaicum Pyrenean lily Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Iris 182 in the reference

Iris acutiloba Iris acutiloba Iridaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Iris aitchisonii Iridaceae Iris alberti Iris alberti Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Islam Galymzhanov Iris albomarginata Iridaceae Iris alexeenkoi Iris alexeenkoi Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, info.botdb.ruIris aphylla Iris aphylla Stool iris Photo: CC BY, Мирослав СоболевIris arenaria Iris arenaria Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleksii VasyliukIris atropurpurea Iris atropurpurea Coastal Iris Photo: CC BY, Nachman bonesIris aucheri Iris aucheri Aucher-Eloy Iris Photo: CC BY-SA, Anas A. Emad Iris baldshuanica Iridaceae Iris barbatula Iris barbatula Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossIris barnumiae Iris barnumiae Iridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Mehrad Rousta all 183 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Xiphion latifolium; Iris xiphioides f. cantabrica; Xiphion jacquinii; Iris xiphioides subsp. cantabrica; Iris xiphium subsp. xiphioides and 5 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
(Mill.) Voss
Native to
France, Spain
Wild records
949 in range · 498 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss (plant_name_id 322036), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 514 records of GBIF's key 2748061, Xiphion latifolium Mill. (Kew's file holds it as Xiphion latifolium Mill. (synonym under Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss)): the GBIF download; 2000 records of GBIF's key 5297960, Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss (Kew's file holds it as Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss (accepted)): the GBIF download; 175 records of GBIF's key 5297965, Iris xiphioides Ehrh. (Kew's file holds it as Iris xiphioides Ehrh. (illegitimate under Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss)): the GBIF download; 0 records of GBIF's key 9238130, Iris xiphium subsp. xiphioides Bonnier & Layens (Kew's file holds it as Iris xiphium subsp. xiphioides Bonnier & Layens (synonym under Iris latifolia (Mill.) Voss)): GBIF occurrence search API; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-6.875, lapse-corrected +655 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 438782-1, POWO 438782-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 78 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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