Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus)

Yellow Iris - Barnes Wetland Centre

The Yellow Iris is a wetland plant that thrives with sun and damp under foot, even in shallow water. It is a hardy plant and works well as a water treatment as it has the ability to take up heavy metal through the root. Yellow Iris is also known as Flag after the 5^th century king Clovis wore the flower as a heraldic symbol. The leaves are appropriately sharp edged and will cut if not handled with care. It has very large noticeable seedpods later in the year and throughout the autumn. The seeds float and thus enabling the plants efficient dispersal. It is used as herbalists but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are expert as one of its main uses is as an emetic, to induce vomiting.