365 Urban Species. #154: Yellow Flag

[urbpan]

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: Riverway, between Brookline Ave and Parkway road.
Urban species #154: Yellow flag Iris pseudacoris

It's surprising to come across a wildflower so large and showy as yellow flag, especially in the city. This attractive iris has escaped cultivation and can be found in drainage ditches, pondsides and other wet urban areas. Sometimes, like cattail, it's deliberately planted in polluted areas, because it is known to remove metals from the soil. Unfortunately, despite being useful and beautiful, this plant is also powerfully invasive, forming monocultural stands in the same way that Japanese knotweed, purple loosestrife, and phragmites reeds do.


Location: Ward's pond, Olmsted Park.

Comments

[artemii.livejournal.com]

did you already do blue flag in a post i missed?
:)

i've been seeing it bloom for about 7-10 days now...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You haven't missed it!

I haven't seen any growing wild in my stomping grounds.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

ah, i see. i'm not sure i've ever seen it growing truly wild this far north (i might have at Fresh Pond, but i can't remember for sure) - but i thought you occassionally did intentionally planted urban species as well :).

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I occassionally do--I did a lot in the winter, when I was desperate! These are the salad days. In November I'll be scrutinizing Japanese yew and the many cedar-family trees and shrubs!

Yellow flag

[(Anonymous)]

Nice closeup on the flower there :-).

Hopefully there won't be too much planting of Yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus) in Massachusetts after this year - an import ban on this species goes into effect July 1st, and a propagation ban on Jan 1, 2007.

- Jenn (invasive species weblog)