Iris cavaleriei H. Léveillé; I. grijsii Maximowicz.

Rhizomes creeping, brown. Roots thick. Leaves dark green, glossy, linear, 15--40 cm × 4--12 mm, veins 3--5, base with fibers. Flowering stems 12--25 cm, 1- or 2-leaved; spathes 2 or 3, green, narrowly lanceolate, 5.5--8 cm, 1- or 2-flowered, apex acuminate. Flowers violet or light blue, 5.6--6 cm in diam.; pedicel 3--7 cm. Perianth tube ca. 5 mm; outer segments spreading, spatulate, with a central, white, 2-lobed patch, 3--4 × 0.9--1.3 cm, crest yellow, low; inner segments erect, narrowly oblanceolate, 3--3.7 × 0.9--1 cm. Stamens ca. 1.2 cm; anthers white. Ovary fusiform, 1.6--2 cm × ca. 0.5 mm. Style branches ca. 2.5 cm × 7 mm. Capsule held at right angle to pedicel, narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 3 cm, apex long beaked. Seeds dark brown, angled, with aril drying as a pale brown wing. Fl. May, fr. Jul--Aug.

White-flowered forms have been described as Iris speculatrix var. alba V. H. C. Jarrett. (Sunyatsenia 3: 265. 1937)

* Forest margins, open groves, roadsides; 500--1800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.