7 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, under 5 mm of rain
- Aug, under 5 mm of rain
- Sep, under 5 mm of rain
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Iris lortetii (also known as Lortet's iris or in Israel as the Samarian iris) is a species in the genus Iris. It has straight grey-green leaves, a 30–50 cm tall stem, and large showy flowers in late spring or mid-summer that come in shades of pink, from white, lilac, pale lavender and grey-purple. It is veined and dotted pink or maroon. It has a signal patch that is deep maroon and a sparse and brown, purple-brown or reddish beard.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Iris lortetii", 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 “rhizomatous geophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (508 mm of 648 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 10.1 °C against a yearly mean of 17.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
Rain
648 mm in the median year at the habitat, 508 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 164 mm, driest months (3 at 1 mm); 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 571 mm to 804 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 658 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 648 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: 18 to 51 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -5.5 °C, 258 frost nights in 44 years, 5.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 2.8 °C to 6.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 60% 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 +85 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 “rhizomatous 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
Mean daily high from 13 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from 4 °C in Jan and Feb to 19 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 648 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 35 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -5.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 13 / 12–15 | 14 / 13–16 | 17 / 16–19 | 22 / 20–24 | 27 / 25–28 | 30 / 28–32 | 32 / 30–33 | 32 / 30–34 | 30 / 29–32 | 27 / 25–28 | 20 / 18–22 | 15 / 14–17 |
| Night °C | 4 / 3–7 | 4 / 3–7 | 6 / 5–9 | 9 / 8–12 | 13 / 12–15 | 16 / 16–18 | 19 / 18–20 | 19 / 18–21 | 18 / 17–20 | 15 / 14–17 | 10 / 8–12 | 6 / 5–8 |
| Rain mm | 164 / 141–204 | 136 / 118–161 | 85 / 72–97 | 24 / 19–34 | 7 / 6–8 | 1 / 1–2 | 1 / 0–1 | 1 / 0–1 | 2 / 2–4 | 23 / 19–30 | 81 / 67–104 | 123 / 107–156 |
| DLI | 19 / 18–20 | 25 / 24–26 | 33 / 32–34 | 42 / 41–42 | 48 / 47–48 | 51 / 50–51 | 49 / 49–50 | 46 / 45–47 | 39 / 38–40 | 29 / 28–30 | 22 / 21–23 | 18 / 17–19 |
| RH % | 60 / 58–61 | 59 / 58–60 | 57 / 56–59 | 53 / 52–57 | 53 / 51–56 | 55 / 52–56 | 57 / 54–59 | 59 / 57–61 | 58 / 56–60 | 56 / 55–57 | 55 / 54–57 | 58 / 57–60 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: author not stated, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Zachi Evenor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); עוזי פז, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons; אין מידע, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; myself, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Sternbergia clusiana Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, yelena_antipova Aristolochia bottae Botta's birthwort 
Iris vartanii Vartanii Iris Photo: CC BY, yelena_antipova
Bongardia chrysogonum Berberidaceae Photo: CC BY, Marios Thoma
Colchicum hierosolymitanum Jerusalem Autumn Crocus Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ornithogalum neurostegium Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, yelena_antipovaOther Iris 182 in the reference
Iris acutiloba Iridaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Iris aitchisonii Iridaceae 
Iris alberti Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Islam Galymzhanov Iris albomarginata Iridaceae 
Iris alexeenkoi Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, info.botdb.ru
Iris aphylla Stool iris Photo: CC BY, Мирослав Соболев
Iris arenaria Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleksii Vasyliuk
Iris atropurpurea Coastal Iris Photo: CC BY, Nachman bones
Iris aucheri Aucher-Eloy Iris Photo: CC BY-SA, Anas A. Emad Iris baldshuanica Iridaceae 
Iris barbatula Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross
Iris barnumiae Iridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Mehrad Rousta all 183 ›Names & registers
The record
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
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_35.625, lapse-corrected +85 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 438815-1 is Kew's for Iris lortetii Barbeywikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22commons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.