Bride's Halo certainly is a beautiful iris. Not a 100% certain, but I don't believe Bride's Halo is a plicata. Both of its parents are described as yellow selfs. I didn't check all of its children (there is quite a number of them), but none that I did look at were described as plicatas.

Interesting, I wonder what you'd call it then?

I think it is a white with a yellow band....banded?

I would probably just call it a bicolor. In some ways, bicolor is a catch all for irises that don't fit well in more specific categories.

Not a plicata.

I keep getting more confused. I thought that the categories for the different iris were defined, with clear defining characteristics. But I guess I'm wrong about that. So, if the plicata gene is recessive, (I guess to the self gene), then two self iris that are heterozygous for the plicata gene, would in fact produce 25% plicata offspring when crossed. Also, two iris that are homozygous for the plicata gene would always produce plicata offspring when crossed. I assume this has been tested and found accurate, otherwise the plicata gene is not recessive. Then there seems to be a plicata like phenotype that gets it's condition from another set of alleles, like the Emma Cook pattern, and maybe even another one called the Banded look. All three seem to have a similar phenotype (appearance), yet they may have a different genotype. At this point I did a bit of researching, and it seems that perhaps the plicata gene is really a set of 3 and maybe 4 alleles, thus a multiple gene inheritance structure, which is way more complicated then a simple dominant/recessive process. I think I'm in over my head! lol. I think I'll just go back to looking at the pretty flowers, and enjoying them.

Classes & color are different things. How about color inheritange in paints? Plicata is recesslive to self & other colors, must come from both sides. There are many colors 'hiding' until you start hybridizing.

I think I read in one of Keith Keppel's catalogs that in order to get a plicata both parents should have plicata heritage. Is this correct?

Yes Betty, that seems to be correct. Here's link to some interesting info about plicata's and luminata's. It's a bit complicated, but interesting.

http://www.worldiris.com/publi...

Very interesting -- I'll have to come back to read it in more depth later. Thanks for providing that link, Tom!

Polly, I wonder if there is a way to post that link in a sticky at the top for reference purposes. I think it would be really beneficial if information like this could be made available so people who are interested could access more information about plicatas and luminatas, and perhaps some of the other color classifications as well. I know when I was trying to find a definition for neglectas I had some trouble, so it would be great if information like this was available to interested people.