This lifeform is found south of the Mason Dixon line in North America. The blue color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is locally common in suitable environments.

Louisiana Iris or southern blue flag (Iris hexagona) is found in the southeastern United States from South Carolina west to Texas and south to Florida and Louisiana. The leafy stems can be up to three feet tall. The lower leaves can be up to three feet long. The beardless falls are much wider than the standards.

Iris genus is found naturally in the north temperate zones of the world with about 300 known species.   There is an unique vocabulary developed for describing the various Iris flowers.  The term "falls" refers to the three drooping lower petals that are frequently bearded. The "standard" refers to the three upright petals. There are 44 species and 21 subspecies growing in  greater North America.  The Iris genus and its numerous hybrids and varieties is one of the most popular garden plant groups.  Consequently, in many instances, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the specific identify of a garden plant.  Brian Mathew, in his book "The Iris," published by Batsford of London with revisions in l989, breaks this genus down into several sections as follows.

     GENUS IRIS
                  
     Subgenus Iris (Bearded Irises)      
        Section Iris  
            Iris germanica         Europe
        Section Psammiris
        Section Oncocylcus
        Section Regelia
        Section Hexapogon
        Section Pseudoregelia

     Subgenus Limniris (Beardless Irises)
        Section Limniris
           Iris douglasiana          West USA
           Iris hexagona               Southeast USA
           Iris pseudacorus         Europe
           Iris setosa                      North USA and N. USSR
           Iris sibirica                     Europe
           Iris tenax                         Northwest USA
           Iris tridentata                 Southeast USA
           Iris versicolor                East USA
           Iris virginica                   South USA
          
        Section Lophriris
           Iris cristata                     Appalachians and Ozarks
           Iris lacustris                   Rare Central USA
    
     Subgenus Nepalensis
     Subgenus Xiphium
     Subgenus Scorpiris
     Subgenus Hermodactyloides

Irises (Family Iridaceae) include the Iris, Gladiolus, Crocus, and other related species. These are important as a family for their beautiful flowers. This family includes approximately 1,800 natural species organized into roughly 92 genera. There are literally thousands of named varieties. In greater North America there are 116 species organized into 23 genera.

Lily Order (Order Liliiflorae) contains several families many of which are noted for their beautiful flowers. In addition to the rushes, this order contains the well-known lily family. Although some authors combine them with the lilies, here the Amaryllis, Iris, and Agave groups are presented in separate families.

Monocots are a large group of plants usually characterized by having leaves with parallel veins and a seed with a single shell. Most flowers are created with multiples of three. In  the older botany texts, the Monocots were considered more primitive than the Dicots. However, many recent authors have placed the Monocots as an offshoot of the primitive Dicots. Here they are placed before the Dicots.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.