Once upon a time, many colorful iris grew wild in Europe. Their beauty won them a place in formal gardens and, eventually, human hands started spreading pollen around to create an even wider variety of colors, patterns, and forms. Thus began the race that now graces our gardens, although they were rather small by today's standards. Collectors found other types of iris around the Mediterranean, with larger flowers, and brought them home to use with existing lines. Easier said than done, because the two types weren't compatible – but that's another story. For now, it's only important to say that they did succeed and created an artificial race. The one we now call Tall Bearded Iris.

In the meantime, other – more exotic – iris grew wild in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Technically, these are called arillate species because their seeds bear small white rings at one end that look like collars. Two of these groups, the oncocyclus and regelia species, have large, exceptionally impressive flowers that quickly caught the eye of collectors. Prized first in European and later in American gardens, these eventually picked up the nickname: Aril Iris. These, too, became the subjects of hybridizers.

Unfortunately, few of our gardens duplicate the conditions that the Aril Iris experienced in their native lands. Although some are easy to grow, others are quite challenging. Early hybridizers developed a vision of exotic aril-like flowers on TB-like plants and started crossing the Arils with other bearded iris. Another long story (coming soon), but finally they succeeded and produced the new, artificial race we now call Arilbreds.

For the average gardener, this is as far as we need to go:

Arils entire ancestry can be traced to the oncocyclus and regelia species.

Arilbreds have some aril species among their ancestors and some non-aril species.

But you may want to know more, so I've structured this site to let you delve as deeply into the details as you like….

If you are interested in entering exhibits in AIS or ASI-sanctioned shows, or want to understand the codes used in some catalogs – you'll need to learn the official definitions and accepted nomenclature. Arils and arilbreds are classified in terms of both type and amount of aril heritage.

There are six codes for arils:

O= Onco Species

OH = Onco Hybrid

R = Regelia Species

RH = Regelia Hybrid

OG = Oncogelia (predominantly onco)

RC = Regeliocyclus (predominantly regelia)

To see a chart with a picture illustrating each type, go to Aril Code Chart.

There are three basic codes for arilbreds, which define type of aril heritage.

OB = Oncobred

RB = Regeliabred

OGB = Oncogeliabred

There are also two modifiers, which indicate the amount of aril heritage.

+ means more than half aril

- means less than half aril

That makes a total of nine codes for arilbreds. To see a chart with pictures that illustrate each different one, go to Arilbred Code Chart.

If you're interested in history, you can get a quick overview of the various classification systems used over the years in AIS Classification Systems and ASI Classification Systems, or you can go straight to a reference list of Acronyms and Codes used in the old systems to pick up some clues for interpreting those old codes by modern standards.

If you study Checklists, to get the most out of recently published information you need to thoroughly understand the systems used in the 1990s. You'll find the details in two separate articles, Aril Classification 1990-95 and Arilbred Classification 1990-95.