Thursday 10 June 2010

Yellow iris on Stratford Canal


Seen on the northern Stratford-on-Avon Canal on our recent walk: the yellow (flag) iris, or iris pseudacorus, according to Wikipedia. Apparently this plant grows best in very wet conditions, so a canal would seem to tick that box, and it has long been used in water treatment owing to its ability to take up heavy metals through its roots.


No intended water treatment going on here though, I'm sure. Neither do steel narrowboats count as "heavy metals", although the Latin name for the plant has swallowed the steel manufacturer Corus (gobbledegook words of welcome on the Corus website: Corus is a customer focused, innovative value-driven company .... Perhaps that's why they were swallowed by Tata Steel).

1 comment:

Vallypee said...

Lovely irises Halfie. We have them here too and I think they are gorgeous!