Yellow iris

Many scholars believe the golden “lily” on the arms of the French kings was a stylised flower of this riverside iris.

The yellow iris is a robust waterside perennial growing to 1.5 m, with sword-shaped leaves and large, bright yellow flowers that open in May and June. It grows along rivers, ponds and ditches, often partly submerged, and the dense clumps of its rhizomes stabilise banks and purify the water. The whole plant is poisonous to people and cattle. The rhizomes were once used for dyeing and tanning, and the roasted seeds as a coffee substitute.

Significance in the country

The fleur-de-lis, a golden flower on a blue field, was the emblem of the French monarchy for centuries, and legend links it to Clovis, who is said to have owed a victory to yellow irises that showed him a ford across a river. The fleur-de-lis motif still adorns the coats of arms of French towns and regions, and of Quebec.

Where it grows

Throughout mainland France and Corsica along rivers, by ponds and in wetlands; especially abundant in the Camargue, the Marais Poitevin marshes and the Loire and Seine valleys.

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