THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ABBEVILLES
C. W. Arny, Jr¹

Bulletin of the American Iris Society, #150, July 1958

The most important factor resulting in the development of fine present day Louisiana iris has been the use of the giant fulva type, commonly referred to as the Abbeville, as breeding material.

Those giants were discoverd by Mr. W. B. MacMillan in a swampy area south of Abbeville, Louisiana about 1940.

The Abbevilles vary in height of growth about two feet to possibly four feet. The flowers of this group of iris have thick leathery almost overlapping petals and sepals of varying size and shape. The color of these iris ranges from yellow to crimson.

Style-arms are short with the tips of the anthers sometimes extending beyond the ends of these arms. The signals are usually a yellow line. Many times no crest is found at all.

The foliage is yellowish green with leaves that have a tendency to droop near their ends.

Flower stems are straight to slightly curved and taller than the leaves of the plant. It is not uncommon to find branched stems. Flower buds are found in pairs at the nodes.

Examination of early registrations indicate that relatively few registered Louisiana iris were anything but collected species or their hybrids. In other words, breeding of Louisiana iris had not really made a start prior to the times these Abbevilles were found.

Evidence of the significance of this group of iris can be obtained from the study of the pedigees since the discovery of the Abbevilles.

A list of recent favorites, might include the following of which pedigrees are available and printed below. The pollen parent is listed in the top section of all the brackets, the pod parent below.

Iris that are believed to have a Abbeville background appear in red.

From examination of this data, a number of interesting and important suggestions are noted. Peggy Mac is the most important single iris in the development of these fine Louisiana iris. If Haile Selassie is truly a parent of Peggy Mac, then this honor goes to Haile Selassie. We cannot be sure that Haile Selassie is a parent of Peggy Mac. Second, there is a predominance of the so-called Abbeville blood in most of the iris listed.

All of the following varieties have the Abbeville form to the extent that their flowers tend to be flat and have wide floral parts carrying width well to the base of each floral segment. The following iris all have collected Abbevilles in their pedigrees:

In conclusion, it appears that it was the Abbevilles that gave the real start to the breeding and improvement in our Louisiana iris.

Further, the presence of the flat flower form , branching, flower substance, rich velvety flower texture, and increased flower size can be attributed to a considerable extent to the Abbevilles.

It might be noted that in practically all those iris that tend to have large, flat flower form, Abbeville breeding is involved, while those without the Abbeville blood maybe be large but do not pocess the flat full form or flowers with the wide floral segments throughout.