Authors:
Generally 15-20cm in height with narrow, grey-green strongly falcate leaves. Flowers very large for the size of the plant, with big, rounded, white, creamy or pale bluish standards, lightly brown-veined and spotted; the falls are more heavily veined and have an intense brown or blackish signal patch. In I.i. subsp. lycotis, the falls and standards are heavily veined, with the falls somewhat spreading (vertical in the type species). Rarely seen in cultivation are I.i. subsp. lycotis var. heterochroa (ground colour of falls reddish brown, the standards paler), var. magnifica (deep cherry-red ground colour), var. panthera (light ground colour with darker spots), and var. pardus, falls spotted, standards darker veined). I.i. subsp. elegantissima grows 20-30cm in height with flowers 10cm in diameter having a cream or pale yellow ground colour, spring. Caucasus to eastern Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Russian Armenia, on open rocky slopes at 1000-3000m.
Joint Rock: Joint Rock Awards, AGS Wisley Show, RHS Wisley Gardens, 24 March 2018
Joint Rock: Joint Rock Awards, Exeter, 13 April, 2013
a, I. iberica; b, I. paradoxa; c, I. sari;
