Species
+

Iris foetidissima L.

Gladdon, Roast-Beef Plant, Stinking Gladwin, Stinking Iris

Climate known 46 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Iris foetidissima, the stinking iris, gladdon, Gladwin iris, roast-beef plant, or stinking gladwin, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae, found in open woodland, hedgebanks and on sea-cliffs.

Text from Wikipedia, “Iris foetidissima”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Great Britain, Baleares, Corse +10
Wild records
551 in range· 305 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
785mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 88 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Iris, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January, March and May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 785 mm a year, wettest October at 88 mm, driest February at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Chamaeiris foetida Medik.; Chamaeiris foetidissima (L.) Medik.; Iris foetida (Medik.) J.P.Bergeret; Iris foetida Gaterau, 1789; Iris foetida Thunb. and 9 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Iris, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January, March and May in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (564 mm of 785 mm) takes 8 months, August to January, March and May. Mean temperature moves 12.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to July, September and November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 785 mm a year, wettest October at 88 mm, driest February at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

785 mm a year at the habitat, 564 mm of it August to January, March and May. Wettest month October at 88 mm, driest February at 55 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 647 mm to 1088 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.8 °C, the absolute minimum -8.6 °C, about 39 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.9 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.7 °C to 4.8 °C), warmest day 20.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 785 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 370 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°frost28.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–35RH 61–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 370 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 6–97 / 7–1010 / 9–1312 / 11–1616 / 14–2018 / 16–2421 / 18–2720 / 19–2718 / 17–2314 / 13–1910 / 9–137 / 6–10
Night °C2 / 1–52 / 1–53 / 2–65 / 4–89 / 7–1111 / 10–1514 / 12–1714 / 12–1712 / 10–159 / 7–125 / 4–83 / 1–6
Rain mm70 / 52–10855 / 42–8157 / 46–8355 / 48–8360 / 49–8456 / 43–7755 / 32–7659 / 43–8266 / 55–9588 / 64–12484 / 60–12580 / 58–124
DLI5 / 5–1110 / 9–1718 / 16–2628 / 25–3334 / 31–3935 / 32–4334 / 31–4429 / 26–3820 / 18–2812 / 11–197 / 5–124 / 3–10
RH %67 / 62–6965 / 60–6663 / 59–6562 / 58–6361 / 58–6361 / 57–6461 / 56–6461 / 57–6463 / 59–6464 / 62–6666 / 63–6867 / 63–70

Each figure is the median across the 370 grid cells holding the 549 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 770:3595 (51.475, -0.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 370 distinct grid cells holding the 549 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 770:3595 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.50_0.000, lapse-corrected -62 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreat Britain, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Italy, Sicilia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores· introduced: Ireland, Switzerland, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Canary Is., Madeira, Turkey, Tasmania, New Zealand North, California
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.447, -0.234 · in the densest population, 384 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 551 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 305 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 222 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 551 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Iris foetidissimaIris foetidissimaIris foetidissimaIris foetidissimaIris foetidissimaIris foetidissimaIris foetidissimaIris foetidissima

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Iris foetidissima, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Taxus baccata L.
Peter A. Thomas, Anthony Polwart (2003) · Journal of Ecology
Poisonous plants in New Zealand: a review of those that are most commonly enquired about to the National Poisons Centre.
Robin J Slaughter, D. Michael G. Beasley, Bruce Lambie, Gerard Wilkins (2012) · PubMed
Structure Determination of New Iridals from Iris pallida and Iris foetidissima
A. Littek, Franz‐Josef Marner (1991) · Helvetica Chimica Acta
Structure Determination of a New Spirobicyclic Triterpenoid from Iris foetidissima
Franz‐Josef Marner, Yasmin Karimi‐Nejad, Lothar Jaenicke, Victor Wray (1990) · Helvetica Chimica Acta
Aportaciones a la flora de Galicia, X
Rubén Pino Pérez, Francisco Javier Silva Pando, António Galán de Mera, Xosé Ramón García Martínez (2011) · Botanica Complutensis
Notes et contributions à la flore de Corse, XXII
Daniel Jeanmonod, André Schlüssel (2008) · Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva)
Screening for Selective Anticancer Activity of Extracts from 59 Plant Species Collected in Southern Spain (Andalusia)
Víctor Jiménez-González, Guillermo Benítez, Julio Pastor, Miguel López‐Lázaro (2026) · Pharmaceuticals
First report of Pseudomonas syringae infecting Iris foetidissima in the United Kingdom
S. Oxspring, Sarah Carroll, A. Bryning, A. Gaunt (2024) · New Disease Reports
Нотатки до знахідок судинних рослин в Україні ІІ
ІВАН ІВАНОВИЧ МОЙСІЄНКО, О.І. Шиндер, O.O. Орлов, Мyroslav Shevera (2024) · Chornomorski Botanical Journal
Iris foetidissima (Iridaceae): discovering the species in Turkey on the basis of a native population
Alı A. Dönmez, Zübeyde Uğurlu Aydın (2014) · Phytologia Balcanica
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Iris 16 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.