Iris, the state flower of Tennessee

How to recognize it

The iris is not one species but a whole genus. Irises are perennials that grow from rhizomes or bulbs, with flat, sword-shaped leaves that overlap at the base in a fan. Each flower has six parts: three outer “falls” that spread or droop and three inner, upright “standards,” carried at the top of a leafless stalk, from a few inches tall in dwarf kinds to about 3 feet in tall bearded irises. Colors run from blue and violet to yellow, orange, white and nearly black. In most of Tennessee irises bloom from April through May.

Garden and wild irises

The popular garden bearded iris is a hybrid of Old World origin, not a Tennessee native, but several wild irises are native to the state. They include the dwarf crested iris, found statewide and especially in Middle and East Tennessee, and the southern blue flag, scattered across the state in wetlands. Iris rhizomes, sap and seeds are mildly toxic if eaten and can irritate the skin.

Where to see it

The Iris Garden at the Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville, kept up by volunteers of the Middle Tennessee Iris Society and recognized in 2000 as an official Tennessee Bicentennial Iris Garden, is at its best from April through June, and the society holds an iris show there each May. UT Gardens and many local iris societies across the state also feature the flower.

Two state flowers

Tennessee’s state flower has a tangled history. Under a 1919 resolution, schoolchildren voted for the passion flower. In 1933 another resolution named the iris the state flower without repealing the earlier choice, so for 40 years Tennessee had two. A 1973 law sorted it out by making the iris the state cultivated flower and the passion flower the state wildflower. A 1935 state song is even titled “When It’s Iris Time in Tennessee.”

The state wildflowers

The passion flower, also called the maypop, has a Cherokee name, ocoee, that was also given to the Ocoee River and valley. In 2012 the Legislature added a second state wildflower, the Tennessee coneflower, which grows only in the limestone cedar glades of Middle Tennessee and was believed extinct until it was rediscovered in the late 1960s.