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The giant blue Louisiana irises of the Gulf Coast are among the best recognized native plants. Louisiana's freshwater marshes and wooded wetlands historically provided the most extensive conditions suitable for this iris, and they grow in profusion where their habitat has been maintained. It is an April tradition to trek from New Orleans a few miles South to the Jean Lafitte area to see the masses of blue in the swamp. Across the southern part of the state, there is wide appreciation that the iris bloom is a special thing.
What is now in the City of New Orleans once consisted of fields of wild blue irises, as well as some fulvas. Development has left them without a hospitable environment save on the outskirts. In Louisiana, beyond a line 20 or 30 miles north of New Orleans, only a few vestiges of this species are found in local wetland areas. Outside Louisiana, giganticaeruleas are found in coastal Texas and Mississippi. |
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