The plant of the month (February): Iris

This genere owns to the Iridaceae family. The most of them have rhizome, the leaves grow from the base.The flowers have different sizes according to the species, with loud colors. In this plant we can't differentiate between petals and sepals because they are fusioned in a single structure; the tepal. These flowers have 3 arched down external tepals and 3 straight internal tepals. The strange morphology of the flower is tightly linked with the pollination ; the external tepals are "designed" with the aim the flying insect perchs on its surface and approaching to the flower centre in order to get the nectar it touches the stamens and get soaked of pollen. In spite of this plant is hermaphrodite, it has an alternative to the selfing ; it has a mechanism in order to prevent the insect from putting away the pollen on the same flower.
This plant has a very large distribution around the North hemisphere, and it grows at almost every ground. Some species of Iris are I.germanica, I.reticulata, I.siberica, I.ensata...
If you want to know how to cultivate Iris follow this link

Why have I chosen this plant?
This time, Ihaven't chosen the plant of the month, but a very important person for me, to whom I dedicate this entry.