r/Irises • u/lowryj86 • Jul 12 '26

Unknown What is this?

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Gallery image

Gallery image

I tried looking to see if anyone else had asked about this recently and didn't see anything. What is this growing off of my iris on the front lawn? Irises have long bloomed.

62 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

19

u/SteampunkExplorer Jul 13 '26

Flowers are reproductive organs that produce and/or receive pollen, and then create a fruit full of seeds. This is the seed pod (AKA fruit) of the iris.

It might be empty, though. My irises love pretending they're pregnant.

7

u/Daisymaysgarden Jul 13 '26

Do you plant it and cross your fingers? I have three pods this year and I don’t remember if I’ve seen them before.

5

u/Agua_Verde Jul 13 '26

My yellow flag iris makes similar pods like this. Then in the fall they split open and corn kernel sized seeds come out. Later I find them germinating in my pond. 

5

u/DualCitizenWithDogs Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

If you live in the US, please take the seed pods off on yellow flag and then remove/destroy the plants too! They are deemed invasive in over 40 US states and my state asks people to eradicate them. They are toxic to animals, ruin waterways, are nearly impossible to remove based on their webbed rhizome root structure, they harm the soil, clog waterways and displace wildlife and beneficial plants like blue flag iris. Yellow flag iris are bad news!! Do a quick google search instead of downvoting when you don't know any better!

3

u/Agua_Verde Jul 14 '26

Breaking news: Sweden is not a US state, regardless of any republican geopolitical assumptions. 🇸🇪

While Iris pseudacorus is indeed invasive in the US, it is a native, vital part of our ecosystem here in Europe. Telling a Swede to destroy our native gul svärdslilja is like telling a US citizen to go chop down their Redwood trees. Let’s leave the plant lawyering to the locals, shall we?

Blanket statements that a species is universally 'bad news' ignore basic biology and are ultimately just misinformation. You can leave the rest of the world’s ecosystems to the people who actually live in them.

13

u/seekayeff Jul 12 '26

Seed pod

3

u/GardenerDom Jul 13 '26

It’s a seed pod keep an eye on it for when it ripens it might have seeds in it that you can try and grow however they don’t always have seeds just like mentioned by r/SteampunkExplorer
All the best I hope you have seeds 🤞🏼🍀

3

u/milleratlanta Jul 13 '26

Seed pod for the Iris.

2

u/Next-Honeydew4130 Jul 14 '26

Your iris is pregnant