It has narrow, glaucous and evergreen leaves, tall slender stem, with 2–3 branches, and 1–3 large flowers in lavender, lilac, red-lilac, to dark purple shades.

[1] It has 2–3 basal,[2] narrow,[3] ensiform (sword shaped),[2] glaucous and evergreen leaves.

[6][7][8] It has 2–3 (rarely 4,[2]) slender (slightly weak,[4]) branches (or pedicels), near top of the plant.

[2][4] The stem and branches have 2 (scarious) membranous spathes, (leaves of the flower bud).

[2] They are normally up to 4–6 cm (2–2 in) long,[2][4] navicular (boat shaped),[4][6] broad and rounded.

[3] The stems (and many branches) hold between 1 and 3 flowers,[2][4] in late spring,[9] between March and May,[1] or June.

[3][5]: 31  The large flowers,[5]: 31 [6][8] are 15 cm (6 in) in diameter,[9] come in various shades,[1] from lavender,[1] lilac,[7][9] red-lilac,[5]: 31 [6][8] to dark purple.

[5]: 31 [8] In the centre of the petal is a thick white beard,[3] tipped with orange.

Inside the capsule, are pyriform (pear-shaped) or D-shaped seeds, that are brown and wrinkled.

[2] In 1956, a karyotype analysis was carried out on 40 species of Iris, belonging to the subgenera Eupogoniris and Pogoniris.

[10] As most irises are diploid, having two sets of chromosomes, this can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings.

[13] The Latin specific epithet cypriana refers to (coming from) Cyprus.

He then started an iris breeding programme, that produced larger plants with different colours and patterns.

[21] It is very difficult to grow in the UK and eastern US,[1][8] unless grown in dry sand under glass, during summer (after blooming, between July, August and September).

[6] Like many other irises, most parts of the plant are poisonous (rhizome and leaves), and if mistakenly ingested can cause stomach pains and vomiting.