Species
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Iris sanguinea Hornem.

Blood iris, Japanese iris, bloodred iris, xi sun

Climate known 56 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Iris sanguinea is a rhizomatous flowering plant in the genus Iris and in the series Sibiricae. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It is one of the species considered a Japanese iris. It is from Asia, found between Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan and Korea. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Iris sanguinea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
Hornem.
Native to
Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk +13
Wild records
856 in range· 453 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Aug, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1209mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 242 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Iris, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1209 mm a year, wettest July at 242 mm, driest December at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -18.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Iris haematophylla Fisch.; Iris nertschinskia Lodd.; Iris nertschinskia var. pumila Makino; Iris sanguinea var. typica Makino; Iris sibirica var. sanguinea (Donn ex Hornem.) KerGawl. and 2 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Iris, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (890 mm of 1209 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.0 °C against a yearly mean of 9.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1209 mm a year, wettest July at 242 mm, driest December at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1209 mm a year at the habitat, 890 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 242 mm, driest December at 25 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 400 mm to 2046 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -18.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -18.8 °C, the absolute minimum -27.6 °C, about 140 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -10.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -29.2 °C to -3.9 °C), warmest day 25.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -18.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -1 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Aug; mean night from -10 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1209 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 642 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost32.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–36RH 55–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 642 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -17–42 / -11–66 / -3–1013 / 6–1718 / 14–2223 / 18–2625 / 21–2826 / 21–2921 / 14–2516 / 5–199 / -7–122 / -16–7
Night °C-10 / -29–-4-8 / -25–-3-3 / -17–13 / -5–79 / 3–1214 / 9–1718 / 13–2118 / 11–2214 / 3–187 / -6–11-0 / -17–5-6 / -25–-1
Rain mm27 / 4–8531 / 4–8954 / 6–13577 / 15–138105 / 31–162145 / 66–233242 / 104–424224 / 93–359174 / 45–27255 / 14–18450 / 8–11525 / 6–76
DLI17 / 9–1922 / 16–2429 / 25–3034 / 32–3636 / 34–4035 / 30–4030 / 27–3529 / 27–3326 / 23–2722 / 16–2416 / 10–1815 / 7–17
RH %58 / 55–6857 / 54–6356 / 52–6055 / 47–6058 / 49–6361 / 54–6766 / 59–7065 / 59–6961 / 56–6758 / 54–6358 / 56–6358 / 55–67

Each figure is the median across the 642 grid cells holding the 782 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1044:6142 (37.775, 127.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -18.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 642 distinct grid cells holding the 782 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1044:6142 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.00_126.875, lapse-corrected +35 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 182 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBuryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Yakutskiya, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Mongolia, Japan, Korea· introduced: Austria, Germany, Assam, Alabama
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker37.396, 127.327 · in the densest population, 376 records (44% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 856 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 453 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 953 km away. 890 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 74 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 856 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Iris sanguineaIris sanguineaIris sanguineaIris sanguineaIris sanguineaIris sanguineaIris sanguineaIris sanguinea

Photographs: (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Michal Honskus, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Iris sanguinea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus removal by six macrophytes from eutrophic water
Shuai Yu, Chunping Miao, Hong Song, Yanqing Huang (2019) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
Establishment of an efficient in vitro propagation system for Iris sanguinea
Ling Wang, Yu Du, Md. Mahbubur Rahman, Biao Tang (2018) · Scientific Reports
PTP1B inhibitors from the seeds of Iris sanguinea and their insulin mimetic activities via AMPK and ACC phosphorylation
Jun Yang, Thi Kim Quy Ha, Ba-Wool Lee, Jinwoong Kim (2017) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Metabolomic Responses of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) to Allelopathic Benzoquinones from Iris sanguinea Seeds
Ji-Woo Yu, Ji‐Ho Lee, Minho Song, Young‐Soo Keum (2023) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Iris sanguinea is conspecific with I. sibirica (Iridaceae) according to morphology and plastid DNA sequence data
EUGENY V. BOLTENKOV, E. V. Artyukova, М. М. Козыренко, Andrey S. Erst (2020) · PeerJ
‘Flower Angel’: A New Iris sanguinea Cultivar
Lijuan Fan, Yu Gao, Karl H. Hasenstein, Ling Wang (2021) · HortScience
Multi-omics analysis of Iris sanguinea with distinctive flower colors provides insights into petal coloration
Guiling Liu, Huijun Liu, Gongfa Shi, Nuo Xu (2024) · Horticultural Plant Journal
A new glucosyltransferase UGT78 from Iris sanguinea is a putative negative regulator in cadmium stress response
Gongfa Shi, Guiling Liu, Huijun Liu, Lei Wang (2024) · Journal of Forestry Research
Analysis of Floral Scent Component of Three Iris Species at Different Stages
Keyu Cai, Zhengjie Ban, Haowen Xu, Wanlin Chen (2024) · Horticulturae
The complete chloroplast genome sequences of Iris sanguinea donn ex Hornem
Hyun‐Jung Lee, Gi-Heum Nam, Kyung‐Hee Kim, Chae Eun Lim (2015) · Mitochondrial DNA Part A

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Iris 16 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 90 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.