Sclerosiphon Nevski, Trudy Bot. Inst. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R.

Crespo, Manuel B., Martínez-Azorín, Mario & Mavrodiev, Evgeny V., 2015, Can a rainbow consist of a single colour? A new comprehensive generic arrangement of the ‘ Iris sensu latissimo’ clade (Iridaceae), congruent with morphology and molecular data, Phytotaxa 232 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

12. Sclerosiphon Nevski, Trudy Bot. Inst. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R. , ser. 1, Fl. Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 4: 331 (1937). Type (holotype):— S. songaricum (Schrenk) Nevski [≡ Iris songarica Schrenk in Fisch. & C.A. Mey., Enum. Pl. Nov. 1: 3 (1841)]

Description:—Rhizomatous herbs, dense tufted, with persistent aerial structures. Rhizome slender, nearly vertical, nodose, woody, apically branched, clothed with long maroon-brown, fibrous remains of leaf sheaths; roots fibrous, thin, not fleshy. Stems aerial, long, with brownish leaf remains at the base, simple, solid, ± rounded. Leaves isobilateral, herbaceous, ± glaucous, narrowly linear, with 3–9 prominent ribs. Flowers in terminal groups 2–6, ± long pedicellate. Spathe valves 3, herbaceous with margins scarious, acuminate, usually keeled. Perigone in 2 rows, differing in size and shape, fused in a long cylindric tube, rigid, ± widened at the apex; falls erect-patent to patent, subpanduriform to oblong-elliptic, reflexed in the upper part, tapering into a long narrow claw, smooth; standards erect, narrow, oblanceolate, acute, about equalling the length of falls, long cuneate at base, tapering into a short haft. Stamen filaments free, adnate to the fall bases. Ovary trilocular, with axile placentation. Style filiform, with 3 petaloid branches, shorter to about equalling the length of falls, each one concealing a stamen; crests long, straight, narrowly triangular-lanceolate to linear, with entire slightly crenate to almost margins; stigma bilobed, with rounded lobes. Capsule narrowly cylindric, trigonous, dehiscing from apex to about middle, reticulate-nerved, usually not hidden into spathes, ± long beaked; pericarp coriaceous. Seeds numerous, subcubic to pyriform, lacking fleshy structures; testa hard, irregularly wrinkled, sometimes shortly winged on angles. x = 9. Figs. 4E , 18B .

It includes 1 species, occurring in central and western Asia (from Afghanistan to Manchuria) ( Fig. 19B ).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Flower morphology: falls, standards and stylar branches, sometimes with spathe bracts (cont.). A) Limniris sibirica (photo: Frank Hoehnel); B) Limniris chrysographes (photo: Ken Walker); C) Limniris sanguinea (photo: Andrej Baryshenko); D) Eremiris lactea (photo: Andrey Korzun); E) Sclerosiphon songaricum (photo: Vladimir Kolobincev); F) Joniris brevituba (photo: Georgy Lazkov); G) Phaeiris giganticaerulea (photo: Rodney Barton); H) Zhaoanthus henryi (photo: Ken Walker); I) Zhaoanthus minutoaureus (photo: Dennis Kramb); J) Iridodictyum reticulatum (photo: Sean Zera); K) Iridodictyum danfordiae (photo: Peter Bohnert); L) Cryptobasis mariae (photo: Yuriy Danilevsky).

FIGURE 18. Habit and floral details. A) Eremiris lactea (Lindley 1840: t. 1); B) Sclerosiphon songaricum (photo: Vladimir Kolobincev); C) Joniris ruthenica (photo: Aleksandr Kostjukov); D) Joniris ruthenica (Ker Gawler 1811: t. 1393); E) Phaeiris fulva (Small 1927: t. 388).

FIGURE 19. Approximate distribution areas: A) Eremiris (yellow); B) Sclerosiphon (green); C) Phaeiris (red); D) Zhaoanthus (blue); E) Hermodactylus (white).