Yellow flag iris

One of the surest signs that May is drawing to a close is the appearance, in a bewildering array of colors, shapes, and forms, of members of the Iris clan. The garden groups have been lording it over the landscape for a week or more—the Siberian irises and their ilk are, of course, among the first blooms of the growing season—and they'll be in fine form for quite some time. But one of the wild irises, a species among the progenitors of cultivated glory, has also started gracing the ridge. The Yellow-flag Iris, a naturalized wetlands plant, just unfurled its first flowers, and, according to the magnificent natural history writer Bernd Heinrich, it does so almost instantaneously: "in a flash," he noted in the May issue of Natural History. Heinrich explores how and why this floral "magic" happens. I contented myself with a portrait of the fastest opening blossoms of the millpond.