The flower on the left has 'standards' and the one on the right does not
Okay the visual here is really for the iris geeks — the iris I refer to as the “naughty” one, Thornbird*, is technically one of the “Space Age” irises, which have ornamental bits other irises don’t have. But one of the side effects, at least on the rhizome I got three years ago, is that sometimes the rest of the flower doesn’t form properly at all. I’m thinking the genetic signalling for the rude beards is like the side effects of thalidomide, in which the signals for blood vessels to grow get blocked — fine if you’re treating multiple myeloma, but NOT fine if the drug interferes with a developing fetus [no blood vessels growing to limb buds means those limbs never get around to growing].
So you can see the two irises here are growing from the same stalk, but only the left-hand one has the traditional ‘standards’ that stand upright on the flower. The one on the right doesn’t, and therefore looks a lot more like a Japaneses iris. I wish I had a better explanation for why this clump so often exhibits these deformed flowers, but I will say that this is one of the prettier examples: here’s the view from above:
Of course, right now I’m avoiding my own ‘standards’: I’ve got grading to do!
Back into the trenches for me….
*BTW, what I’ve been calling “Thornbird” may actually be a different Space Age iris, called “Devilish Nature”
Rethorykal Questions 