Iris pseudacorus - (Yellow Flag Iris)

The sparkling yellow flower of the iris (also called yellow flag) is a true eye-catcher on the grassy river banks of Pohja. This lovely plant grows also on beaches and in shallow water. Its favorite habitat is a rich pond or lake. Iris is Latin for rainbow, and the flower definitely displays a classic example of a truly bright color. The juice that can be extracted from the plant has – even in quite small quantities – an irritating effect on the mucous membranes and has been used against toothache. The flowers have also been used to produce yellow ink.

Rhizome stout and extensively spreading; leaves erect, somewhat arched and nodding at top, linear-attenuate, about 2 cm. Wide, forming clumps to about 1 m. tall; flowering stalk stout, erect, about as tall as clump of leaves, with 1 or 2 short leafy bracts; flowers 1 or 2 together at apex of flower stalk, also often in the axil of the upper leaf; involucral bracts 2, shorter than flower; the 3 outer perianth segments 5-8 cm. Long and arching, clear-yellow or sometimes with flecks of brown at base and on claw, with suborbicular to ovate blade and a broad claw with involute edges; the 3 inner perianth segments yellow, linear to linear- pandurate, obtuse, to about 25 mm. long; capsule cylindric-prismatic to ellipsoid, 5-8 cm. long, bright-green, often lustrous, turgid, bluntly 3 angled; seeds suborbicular or somewhat angular from pressure, corky, about 7 mm. in diameter. Entomophilous, diaspores seeds.

Rhododendron viscosum