[6][7][8] Normally, the stalk of the plant holds a flower head high above the foliage, raising it to pollenisers.

In the middle of the falls, there is a row of short hairs called the 'beard', which is mostly orange,[2] yellow, or dark-tipped on a cream ground.

The elaiosome (fleshy coating) of seeds of the iris are rolled by the wind along the soil surface near the plant and collected later by ants.

[12] It was found in Ziza, Katrani (about halfway between Ma'an, Syria and Amman) in Palestine,[6] then first described and published by John Edward Dinsmore in Fl.

[1][18][19] In 1939, it was downgraded and thought to be a synonym of Iris nigricans, but in 1986 Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan in her book Flora Palaestina Vol.

[4] In the 1970s, a population of irises was found in Yeruham, Israel and botanist Avishay proposed that they were new and named them I. hieruchamensis.

He did not formally publish his opinions, and later Feinbrun concluded they were the same species as found in the Negev desert.

[2] It is also found on the eastern side of Wadi Araba in the Dead Sea basin (which is between Jordan and Israel).

[12][21] I. petrana grows mainly in the desert,[11] on sandy loess plains and the stabilized sand fields above neogene (created) sandstone.

It is included in the Red Book of Endangered Plants in Israel by Avi Schmid, Gadi Polk and Uri Fergman-Sapir.

Within the Yeruham Iris Nature Reserve, it grows with mounds of Echiochilon fruticosum, the blue Siberian lily Ixiolirion tataricum and a hyacinth relative called Leopoldia longipes subsp.

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