Japanese Iris

Iris sanguinea is often confused with Iris sibirica, another blue flowering Asian iris. But I. sanguinea has unbranched stems, while I. sibirica has branched stems.

It has a thick creeping rhizome.

It has grey-green leaves that are more or less the same height as the flowering stems, but as the leaves droop, they appear shorter. The linear, narrow leaves grow between 20–60 cm long and 5-13mm wide.

It has a hollow unbranched flowering stem, that grows up to between 30 and 90 cm (12 and 35.5 in) long. The stems bear two to three flowers, at the terminal ends in early summer, between May and July.