Exotic Beauty (51) : Large Wild Iris

Exotic Beauty (51) : Large Wild Iris

The past years I made several visits to the conservatories of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium where 10.000 (!) plant and tree species originating from the tropics and the subtropics are growing in the greenhouses over there.

Thanks to the warm and moist climate in the conservatories and the intensive maintenance, it’s really amazing what an immense great variety of exotic flowers from all over the world can be seen there, even in the cold winter season !
Flowers whose natural habitat is situated in the rainforest, the mountain forest, isolated islands, deserts, etc……. Places that most of us will never or seldom visit.
Some of the flowers are very rare, extremely colourful or specially shaped.
Others were introduced in Europe by men and became a cultivated species or an ornamental houseplant.

I selected the –to my personal taste- most beautiful flowers that I saw there and made a series of them.

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In English also known as Fairy Iris and Butterfly Iris
Dutch name : Afrikaanse Iris
German name : Südafrikanische Elfen Iris (auch Grosse Wildiris genannt)
Latin name : Dietes grandiflora

Country of origin : South Africa

A big thanks to ? for the nomination of this picture.