1264.000 Iris L. - Irises

Perennial herbs with rhizomes, sometimes with swollen storage roots. Leaves mostly basal 2-ranked, often orientated edgeways to the aerial stem; lamina lanceolate. Inflorescence of rhipidia arranged as racemes, panicles or solitary. Flowers relatively large, often fragrant, white, yellow, blue or violet; perianth tube often trumpet-shaped, outer 3 segments usually ornamental with a crested claw and an expanded, usually reflexed limb. Fruit a capsule, globose, ellipsoid or cylindric; apex may be beaked. Seeds pyriform, flattened.

Worldwide: 260 species in the temperate northern hemisphere to the Philippines.

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.