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IRIS PALLIDA 'VARIEGATA'
Oris root Iris, Iris pallida
If you have ever made potpourri you will be familiar with this iris. Orris root is used in designer perfumes and has a violet scent.
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If you have ever made potpourri you will be familiar with this iris. Orris root is used in designer perfumes and has a violet scent.
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Iris pallida blooms in the spring and has a beautiful lavender ruffled flower. The variegated foliage is lovely after the flowers have faded. |
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In her best-selling The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores hundreds of “plants that create the world’s great drinks,” including iris. She writes:
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- “The pharmacy and perfumery of Santa Maria Novella, established by Dominican friars in Florence in 1221, gained notoriety for its use of the rhizomes of iris. They were not the first — Greek and Roman writings mention it — but their perfumes, cordials, and powders contained liberal doses of this rare and precious substance. Orris was popular not so much for its fragrance — although it does contain a compound called irone that gives it a faint violet smell — but as a fixative, holding other fragrances or flavors in place by contributing a missing atom that would otherwise make the fragrance volatile and easily released from the solution it is suspended in. None of this chemistry was understood at first. Perfumers and distillers would also not have understood why the rhizomes had to dry for two to three years before they become effective as a fixative. We now know that it takes that long for a slow oxidation process to occur, bringing about the chemical change that causes irone to form from other organic compounds present in the rhizome. Only about 173 acres of orris are cultivated worldwide. Most of the orris is either I. pallida ‘Dalmatica’, grown in Italy, or . . . I. germanica var. Florentina, grown in Morocco, China, and India. I. germanica ‘Albicans’ is also used in orris production. To extract the orris, the rhizome must first be pulverized and steam-distilled to produce a waxy substance called orris butter, or beurre d’iris. Then alcohol is used to extract an absolute, which is a perfumer’s term for a stronger version of an essential oil. Orris is found in nearly every gin and in many other spirits. Its popularity in perfume is due to the fact that it not only holds the fragrance in place but clings to the skin as well. It also happens to be a very common allergen, which explains why allergy sufferers might be sensitive to cosmetics and other fragrances — as well as gin.”
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Iris florentina syn. Iris germanica, commonly known as orris root
Hand-colored engraving by
James Sowerby 1757-1822; published by Dr. William Woodville, 1752-1805.
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References______________________________________________
- Pallida Dalmatica and Orris Root - in Italy, Perfume, Martinis, and Your Garden, article. https://oldhousegardens.com/MoreAboutPallidaDalmatica
- Stewart, Amy, and Coleen Marlo. The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks. United States.
- Phytochemistry http://www.psna-online.org/
All material © 2018 by Jeanette Hyden for Grassroots Horticulture
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