Experts study mystery irises at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens

The Rivers of Iris exhibit at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens (CGBG) is flourishing, but the technicolor blooms aren't the only things attracting attention.

Stan Gray, volunteer iris curator at CGBG, and Brian Shamblin, an associate research scientist with the University of Georgia's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, are growing several mystery irises at the gardens that could prove to be one of two exceptionally rare iris species: Iris rivularis or a variant of Iris hexagona.

The mysterious discovery is already generating interest in the iris conservation space.

"I looked for three years and couldn't find (Iris hexagona) anywhere in Georgia or South Carolina," Shamblin said. "I joined one of the Georgia native plant Facebook groups just to keep my eyes peeled."

Iris hexagona is rare throughout its range. Many of the native locations mentioned in the variety's herbarium records were submerged when South Carolina created reservoirs such as Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, lost along with South Carolina towns like Ferguson, Vienna and Countsville.

Iris rivularis is even more elusive. Described in 1927 by the curator of the New York Botanical Garden, botanists have since had difficulty locating the flower. Many think it is a type of Iris hexagona. However, recent research from the Florida Museum of Natural History has resurrected it as a species and suggested that it is endangered.

Now Shamblin and Gray may have a chance to research Iris rivularis at CGBG, a top Savannah attraction run by UGA's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension.