The upper lip of the sepal is shorter and shaped like a shoehorn, curving up. The deeper colored edges of the 3 large, drooping petal-like sepals fade toward the base, with a pale yellowish to greenish spot in the throat and prominent blue-purple veins radiating from it. The flowering stems emerging from the base are smooth with a waxy surface (glaucous) and strong, remaining erect as the seed pods mature.įlowers are a typical iris shape, 3 to 4 inches across, blue to blue-violet, infrequently red-purple and rarely pale blue. Stem leaves rarely rise above the flowers. The sword-like leaves are about 1 inch wide and 1 to 3 feet long, erect or arching out from the base, often purplish red at the base. Leaves are mostly basal with 1 or 2 along the stem. Stem is straight, not much above the ground and usually possess basal leaves which are over 1 cm in width. The plant prefers sandy or loam-peat like soils.

It is found growing in marshes, swamps, wet meadows, along shorelines, forested wetlands, sedge meadows, marshes, and along stream banks and shores. Smitten by its beauty and similarity to the yellow flag, they gave it the ‘blue flag’ titleīlue Irish is an herbaceous perennial plant that grows about 10–80 centimeters high. Others say that the early European settlers found the flower of this herb very similar to another European flower known as the Yellow Flag. Some say the herb got its name from the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow. The word ‘versicolor’ means ‘of many colors’. The name ‘flag’ comes from the Middle English word ‘flagge’ which means reeds or rushes. It may be noted that blue flag is also called the liver lily since the dried up and pulverized rhizomes of the herb were predictably thought to be a wonderful medication for cleansing the contaminations of the blood as well as the different illnesses of the liver.

The plant is native to marshes, swamps, wet meadows, ditches and shorelines of North America, in the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada. Scientific synonyms include Iris boltoniana, Iris caurina, Iris dierinckii and Limniris versicolour. Iris Versicolor, also known as Blue Flag, has a number of other common names such as Poison Flag, Flag Lily, Liver Lily, Snake Lily, Dragon Flower, Dagger Flower, Water Flag, harlequin blue flag, larger blue flag, northern blue flag, purple iris, blue iris, Fleur-de-lis.

Bluej iris