I was dead-heading iris and found one of the Rebellion looked odd. Turns out to only have two standards and two falls. Not due to wind damage because no mark of anything missing. How often does this happen in TB iris?

It is a chimera. When an iris is stressed during bloom production they sometimes produce odd blooms with either too few or too many standards and falls, or with other odd additions. It does not hurt the iris, and isn't a permanent change.

Check out this thread for more on chimera:
The thread "SUPER FREAK - Chimeras and other oddities" in Irises forum

Hi Lloyd, I usually have a few 2x2's every year.

lauriemorningglory said:Hi Lloyd, I usually have a few 2x2's every year.

So do I.

The way the iris world uses the word, "chimera," is an oddity in itself. The word as used elsewhere in biology means an individual formed by the fusion of two fertilized eggs, so that parts of the body have cells from one assortment of DNA, and other cells of the body have a different assortment of DNA. And that, of course is a permanent situation. In humans it can also occur from bone marrow or organ transplantation. Here is a wikipedia article on chimerism:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...) .

However that's the term for irises.

Lucy, I understand that and I accept that. It's just that maybe people should also know it's not the same thing that others in all the biological sciences accept as a chimera.

I do wonder, though, whether broken-colored iris may actually be real chimeras. Has anyone done DNA comparisons between color parts of a broken color iris?

Chimera are also mythical beasts so it really is all in the context.

I get chimera every year but very few iris are known to have them with any frequency. Awesome Alex has at least one every year, and I think most everyone on here who grows it has seen those little oddities.

My favorite definition of an iris chimera is Paul Black's quote under my posts.

It's a great quote!

lauriemorningglory said:Hi Lloyd, I usually have a few 2x2's every year.

I have a few 2x2's every year, too, usually at the end of bloom.

lharvey16 said:

Lloyd ~ to the Iris Forum!

I know the idea of a chimera isn't quite the same as the technical definition of it. It seems to be a word that is used for odd things that happen to irises, usually weather-related. In any case, your iris is still pretty.