Identification and Habitat

Stinking iris is a flowering plant in the Iridaceae family that flowers in the summer and bears fruit through autumn and winter, it is perennial and evergreen with deep green leaves and bright red fruit that grows in clusters, they commonly stand around half a meter high and can tend to grow in clumps in hedgerows and open woodlands, it is a reasonably hardy plant, able to grow in most soil types and conditions, the fruit of the stinking iris contain many small seeds and rely in ingestion from birds and other wildlife to disperse the seeds, it is important to note that stinking iris is toxic to dogs cats and humans as the seeds contain potent irritants that can cause irritation, vomiting and nausea upon ingestion or irritation on contact with the skin, the flowers of the stinking iris are a dull yellow or purple colour and can mainly be seen in the summer months.

Folklore and Medicinal Uses

When flowering the flowers have been said to produce a scent similar to roast beef, giving this plant the common moniker of the roast beef plant, and being part of the iris family there is a lot of folklore that references iris’s as a symbol of death or mourning due to the fact that in the UK they grow along hedgerows which were commonly used as paths to cemeteries or graveyards, furthermore the iris found a place within Greek mythology in the form of the goddess iris, represented by the iris flower.~
stinking iris has been used in the past as a method of inducing vomiting for medical purposes, which however ill advised has been documented to work for many centuries, with some records of the iris being used for medicinal purposes dating back to 4-BC under the name Theophrastus.