Chicken Trees vs Louisiana Irises (The irises won!)

 By Gary Salathe

My non-profit, the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI), has a Louisiana iris restoration project underway with our partners, the Friends of the Palmetto Island State Park, at the boardwalk in Palmetto Island State Park near Abbeville, Louisiana. One of the project's goals is to increase the number of Louisiana species Iris nelsonii (common name Abbeville Red iris) growing in the swamp at the boardwalk. One critical job that needed to be accomplished was to remove the Chinese tallow invasive tree species from the boardwalk swamp where the irises would be planted.

This photo was taken at the boardwalk swamp this past April. We hope to have 2,000 I. nelsonii species of the Louisiana iris blooming at the park's boardwalk for the 2025 Bayou Teche Native Louisiana Iris Festival. The second day of the festival will be held at Palmetto Island State Park to celebrate the I. nelsonii Louisiana iris.

The Chinese tallow is a drought-tolerant tree native to China and Japan. It was first introduced in South Carolina during the 1700s as an ornamental tree and then for making soap from seed oils. It can be found from eastern North Carolina southward to Florida. From Florida, it spread westerly through Louisiana and Arkansas into Texas.

This August 2023 photo was taken from the Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk in the swamp where the irises will be planted this fall. As seen in the photo, all trees that are 30' tall or smaller are invasive Chinese tallow trees.

Chinese tallow trees can be identified by broad, waxy-green leaves, often with an extended tip or "tail." New growth briefly appears reddish.

In the early 1900s, it was used as an ornamental tree in Louisiana because most of Louisiana's native trees do not produce fall-colored leaves. The Chinese tallow tree does.

The Chinese tallow tree can be easily spotted in Louisiana forests when its leaves change color in late fall. Once this happens, the green color starts to fade from the leaves, and then reds, oranges, and yellows become visible. The leaves from most of Louisiana's native hardwood trees turn brown in color.

The south/central part of Louisiana, where Palmetto Island State Park is located, is part of Louisiana's Acadiana region, also known as Cajun country. In this region, the Chinese tallow tree is known as the "Chicken tree."

The Chicken trees needed to be removed from the park's boardwalk swamp before the two iris plantings planned for later this year. This was because the Chicken trees would compete with the irises, just as they were competing with the native Bald Cypress in the boardwalk swamp for moisture and nutrients in the soil. Also, trying to remove the Chicken trees after the irises were planted would risk volunteers trampling the irises. A decision was made by LICI and the park manager to set September 9, 2023 as the day to remove the Chicken trees.

I'm shown giving the opening remarks at the Chicken tree removal event in Palmetto Island State Park. I spoke on the history of the Abbeville Red iris and its discovery.   I also explained why the display of these irises at the park's boardwalk is so important to so many people, literally from around the world. It is a place to see this rare species of Louisiana iris in bloom. Photo by Henry Cancienne.

The September 9th event was co-hosted by Palmetto Island State Park and the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI), with the Friends of Palmetto Island State Park, Inc. sponsoring the event by supplying snacks, drinks, and sandwiches. In the days leading up to September 9th, it became a community-wide event with volunteers signing up from a Scout Troop in Lafayette, Abbeville Rotary Club, Abbeville Garden Club, Vermilion ARCH 4-H club - including some of the parents, Friends of Palmetto Island State Park, Inc., volunteers from people staying at the park, and LICI's volunteers. Approximately 50 volunteers showed up for the event.

The swamp was dry due to the extreme drought the area has been experiencing. Dry conditions made it easier for the volunteers to get around and do the work. 

 

 Volunteers begin work at the Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk swamp at the September 9 Chicken tree removal event. Photo by Henry Cancienne.

The park manager, Andrea Jones, was very supportive of the effort. She lined up many of the volunteers, allowed her staff to help deliver, set up, and take down everything needed for the event at the boardwalk base station, and allowed the group to use the nearby meeting room building and its porch.

 

 Two volunteers are shown with loopers and the flagging used to mark each Chicken tree.

Small red flags were set next to each Chicken tree so the volunteers would not need to determine which trees in the swamp needed to be cut down. Then, volunteers with either tree limb loopers or a chainsaw would cut the trees down. The cut trees were hauled to the swamp's edge and left to rot among the palmettos. A few volunteers then squirt each tree stump with an herbicide to kill the roots. They would collect each red flag as they were finished. Most trees ranged in size from twenty feet tall or less with a 1" to 1 1/2" diameter trunk.

Stewart Broussard, president of the Friends of Palmetto Island State Park, Inc., is seen here working with the other volunteers to clear out Chicken trees during the event.

As a way to add a festive feeling to the event, a local aspiring singer/songwriter, Brody Lemaire, along with his singer and percussionist sister, Zoey Lemaire, offered to donate their time to come out and play for the other volunteers as they worked. Their playing and singing were a wonderful background for the groups working out in the swamp.

Volunteers at work removing Chicken trees during the September 9 event.

At the end of the event, I told the group, "I have no idea how many Chicken trees were pulled up or cut down, but it was a lot! When the Abbeville Red irises we will be planting this winter bloom throughout the swamp at the boardwalk next spring, everyone will have a clear view of the show, thanks to the work y'all did here today."

This is the final "Goodbye" group photo of most volunteers and park staff participating in the Chinese tallow tree removal volunteer event at Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk swamp on September 9, 2023. Photo by Henry Cancienne.

One last video to show the iris spirit of the volunteers!!

First Annual Abbeville Swamp Iris Seed Collection Project

By Gary Salathe

My non-profit, the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI), has a Louisiana iris restoration project underway with our partners, the Friends of the Palmetto Island State Park, at the boardwalk in Palmetto Island State Park near Abbeville, Louisiana. One of the project's goals is to increase the number of Louisiana species Iris nelsonii (common name Abbeville Red iris) growing in the swamp at the boardwalk. Another goal is that after using the bloom to verify plants as I. nelsonii, they could be thinned out at some point in the future and returned to the nearby Abbeville Swamp. Since this swamp is the only place in the world where this Louisiana iris grows naturally, any I. nelsonii iris originated from there and was collected at some point.

 Kent Benton, Forest Benton, and myself (left to right) in a clump of I. nelsonii on April 5th in the Abbeville Swamp.    Photo by Henry Cancienne

An Abbeville Swamp landowner invited a small group of LICI volunteers to visit it during early April 2023 to see the irises during bloom. Although we were excited by the irises we found, it was also disappointing to find no irises growing in huge areas of the swamp. The exact reason is unknown. What it is known that collectors have aggressively removed irises in this swamp since their discovery in the late 1930s through the late 1990s, sometimes without the landowners' permission.

This past June, Louisiana iris enthusiast, iris grower, and LICI volunteer Kent Benton donated hundreds of I. nelsonii iris seedlings for the Palmetto Island State Park iris restoration project. They are currently growing at LICI's New Orleans iris holding area. Kent donated seeds his nursery created through a captured breeding process which utilized I. nelsonii iris pollen he collected at the Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk in 2021 with the permission of the park manager.

Kent's donated irises will be planted at the park’s boardwalk this fall, but many will not be mature enough to bloom next spring.  Efforts are underway to solicit donations of I. nelsonii irises from iris collectors to increase the number of blooming irises at the boardwalk in April.

LICI's volunteer, Kent Benton, is seen collecting pollen from a few of the I. nelsonii irises blooming at the Palmetto Island State Park on March 23, 2023, during a visit to the park. He received permission from the then-manager of the park to collect pollen to use for producing more I. nelsonii irises to be planted at the boardwalk in 2024.

In April 2023, Kent collected more pollen from the irises at the boardwalk during the bloom season. Unfortunately, a late frost destroyed many of the flowers at his nursery soon after they were pollinated. We were hopeful that created seeds could be planted and grown out at the boardwalk in the fall of 2024 and they would all bloom in April 2025. Alas, mother nature had other plans.

Next, we proposed collecting seed pods from the actual I. nelsoniii irises growing in the Abbeville Swamp when they ripen in July to stay on track with having more irises to plant in the fall of 2024 at the park's boardwalk. We think that almost all of these seeds would be wasted if they stayed in the swamp since the percentage of Louisiana iris seeds germinating, growing, and surviving into mature plants in the wild is extremely low, especially of the irises growing in standing water.

The plan is for the irises from these collected seeds to grow in their natural environment in the Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk swamp, where the public can enjoy them while they bloom. But more importantly, after they are confirmed to be true I. nelsonii irises, they will be moved back into the Abbeville Swamp into areas where no irises are growing. In 2 1/2 years, we can return to the Abbeville Swamp with a much higher percentage of plants produced from collected seed than if seeds germinated independently in the swamp. 

The photo on the left shows the 36" tall I. nelsonii irises blooming in one of the more remote areas the LICI volunteers found irises on their April tour of the Abbeville Swamp. The same area is shown on the right in July after 4 1/2 months of weed and swamp plant growth. The dormant irises and their ripe seed pods were covered by 48" tall weeds and brush.

After receiving the landowner's permission, I did an iris seed pod collection expedition to the Abbeville Swamp on July 12, 2023. Unfortunately, it coincided with an extreme heat wave hitting the area. I collected sixty seed pods after four hours of tiring and dirty work in the scorching heat that involved whacking through brush and weeds to get to the irises and their seed pods.

Some seed pods collected on July 12th from the I. nelsonii irises in the Abbeville Swamp.

The next morning, Thursday July 13, 2023, during a presentation on germinating iris seeds I gave to members of the Acadiana Native Plant Project, some seed pods were opened, and the seeds were planted into one-gallon pots. I taught the attendees Kent Benton's method of germinating seeds in which he gets between a 70% and 90% success rate. The 455 seeds will be germinated and monitored by the group at their native plant nursery in Arnaudville, Louisiana.

Photo: Members of the Acadiana Native Plant Project are seen on July 13th planting seeds after opening the seed pods collected the day before at the Abbeville Swamp.

Later that same day, near Livingston, Louisiana, I gave Kent some mature pods to germinate the seeds. The next day he reported planting 465 seeds from the seed pods into pots. 

Kent Benton on July 14th after planting the seeds he was given from the Abbeville Swamp into containers.

 

On Friday, July 14th, the rest of the seed pods were opened, and 474 seeds were planted into one-gallon pots by staff and interns of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) nursery in Thibodaux, Louisiana. They will germinate the seeds as a joint project with Nicholls Farm. The farm is managed by the head of the Biology Department at Nicholls State University.

The Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) nursery at Nicholls University in Thibodaux, Louisiana

 

 

 

 

The groups agreed to help germinate the seeds when LICI determined that the irrigation system used at its iris-holding area for their mature irises would put too much water onto them.

We are excited that a thousand or more of the very rare I. nelsonii plants will come from the 1,400 seeds planted into pots this week! I am very grateful for our friends and partners in this seed-germination project: Acadiana Native Plant Project, Kent Benton, and the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program in conjunction with Nicholls State University.

Tammy, an intern with BTNEP, is seen just before she covers with soil the 474 iris seeds she helped to plant into pots at the BTNEP nursery.

 

 

All seedlings that come from our combined efforts will be given back to LICI in about five months to grow out at our iris-holding area in New Orleans. They will be ready for planting at the Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk during the fall of 2024.

I'm hopeful that with more time available to plan a visit back to the Abbeville Swamp during next spring’s bloom, and with the permission of the landowner, of course, we may be able to significantly increase the number of seeds that we can collect next summer to farm out for germinating to boost the number of seedlings available for growing out even further.

The hoped-for outcome of all of this work by all of the groups that are part of this project is to have a couple of thousand I. nelsonii irises blooming at the Palmetto Island State Park’s boardwalk by the spring of 2025.

A group of civic leaders in New Iberia, Louisana, have begun organizing the inaugural Bayou Teche Native Louisiana Iris Festival for March 28th through the 30th in 2025. The festival will be based in New Iberia, but the last day of activities will take place in Palmetto Island State Park at the boardwalk to celebrate the restoration of the I. nelsonii planting there. The educational type festival will also have talks open to the public about this rare iris and the need to preserve its native habitat.

Alison Miller during her meeting with LICI at the Abbeville Cultural & Historical Museum & Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 in Abbeville, Louisiana.

Although awareness of the Abbeville Red irises at the Palmetto Island State Park will be elevated by the iris festival in 2025, the Vermilion Parish Tourist Commission has already extensively promoted the iris bloom at the park each spring. During a July meeting with the Executive Director of the Tourist Commission, Alison Miller, I committed LICI to helping the tourist commission get the word out about the iris restoration project at the park and to increase awareness of the Abbeville Red irises while they bloom next spring. She also said the tourist commission would help with marketing the inaugural Bayou Teche Native Louisiana Iris Festival. She said they regularly get people from all over the country come into the visitor's center and ask about the Abbeville red irises, especially during the iris bloom each spring.

I. nelsonii irises blooming at the Palmetto Island State Park boardwalk on April 5, 2023

Starting next spring, and each year, as all of the I. nelsonii flowers are blooming at the Palmetto Island State Park's boardwalk, iris experts will be asked to walk through the swamp to verify that each iris is, in fact, an I. nelsonii specimen. After the 2025 iris festival, the process will begin of returning many of the irises back to the Abbeville Swamp to be replaced at the boardwalk with a new crop of iris seedlings created using the prior year's seeds collected from the Abbeville Swamp. My hope is that the boardwalk planting at the park will become a clearing house for irises grown from seeds collected from the Abbeville Swamp to be confirmed while they bloom so they can head back into the swamp as full-size plants.

The Friends of Palmetto Island State Park have created a new page on their website. The page not only has links to Facebook postings and articles about their partnership with LICI and what the goals are for the project, but it also has a donate button for a fund they have set up so everyone can help to maintain, enhance and expand, the Abbeville Red iris exhibit at the boardwalk by donating. Here's a link to the page: https://friendsofpalmetto.org/partnering-with-lici The new donate button is at the bottom of the page, and any help will be greatly appreciated.

The LICI Facebook page can be found here.

You can email me at: licisaveirises@gmail.com

Understanding Louisiana Iris Part 4 I. nelsonii

Understanding Louisiana Iris Part 4 I. nelsonii

                                                                    By Joseph Musacchia

  I. nelsonii is the most recently named Louisiana iris species. It was named by Randolph in 1966 for Dr. Ira Nelson, Professor of Horticulture, Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  

  I. nelsonii was a sensation among Louisiana iris enthusiasts after it was "discovered" around 1938 by W. B. MacMillan. Restricted to a small area Southeast of Abbeville, Louisiana, they were commonly called the "Abbeville Reds," or occasionally "Super Fulvas."  Because of their size and color, they were used extensively in early hybridizing. 

I. nelsonii  'Young's Coulee'
Collected by Benny Trahan

 The comparison to I. fulva was due to color, and the superlative "super" reflected their size.  In their native swamp habitat, they grow considerably taller and have larger flowers than Iris fulva, although they resemble I. fulva with the red and yellow underlay. A few yellow forms were found in the relatively small area of its range.

‘Butead’s Gift’ collected by Benny.

A nice collected red.

  Unlike fulva,however, and much more like I. giganticaerulea, the Abbeville reds were found in shallow water in cypress swamps.  I. Fulva is more typically an inhabitant of wet sloughs and roadside ditches; wet areas to be sure, but not in the swamp per se.

Just southwest of Lafayette
Louisiana

The  I. nelsonii habitat is restricted to a few square miles of cypress/tupelo swamp.  Due to the environmental impacts on the area, it is seriously endangered.  Through the efforts of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, a population of nelsoniis have been moved to the Palmetto State Park a few miles away, where they can be protected. 

  Past research determined that I. nelsonii is a species of hybrid origin, with traces of fulva, giganticaerulea and brevicaulis in its background.   It is presumed that the I. nelsonii environment was relatively isolated and, after unknown years of inbreeding, the population stabilized to create the species. Additional research is ongoing and a fuller understanding of the origins of I. nelsonii may emerge.  Whatever I. nelsonii's origins, it was a fascinating find and was exceedingly important in developing the modern cultivars of Louisiana iris available today.

Closed loop styles

Darker center lines on the
standards and falls

 Some unique traits of I. nelsonii include the closed loop of the styles which almost encloses the anther; the darker center lines on the standards and falls; and the pendent form. It has little or no signal. It grows in standing water in the swamps and so needs lots of water in the garden. It can also handle more shade than most LA’s. 

"I. nelsonii"   Growing in 
“Young's Coulee”

   I. nelsonii  adds a lot to the gene pool for hybridizing. Characteristics it contributes include taller, stronger stalks, more color, ability to grow in shadier areas, better root structure to hold up taller stalks, and  other unique features. 

  In up coming articles I will show how the unique features of these four species of Louisiana iris make up the the modern cultivars. Hopefully, this will help you make better decisions on what will grow in different areas of your garden. Or, why some cultivars won't grow/bloom in your garden.