It is a dwarf rhizomatous perennial plant from eastern Europe, the Causcasus region and Russia, with a short stem and violet-blue and white flowers.

[3] It has short, thick, woody, branching rhizomes[4][5][6] that measure 0.4–1.0 cm in diameter.

[8] It has 2–5 basal leaves[3][9][10] that are narrow, linear, lanceolate, slightly glaucous and grass-like.

[8][12][14] In total, with the flower, peduncle and stem, the plant can reach up to 10 cm (4 in) tall.

[18][2][3] The stems have 2 green, lanceolate, membranous spathes (leaves of the flower bud), that are 40–70 mm long.

[11][12][14] The flowers have a slight scent,[17][19] which is rare for most spuria irises,[2] and they can be up 5–7 cm (2–3 in) in diameter,[4][7][19] and come in shades of violet-blue,[5][6][9] violet,[7][14][15] purple,[6][11][12] or purple-reddish.

They have a yellow, yellow-greenish or white centre patch that is veined with violet, reddish-brown or brown.

[11][12][16] The single coloured (violet-blue to blue) standards are oblanceolate and unguiculate (clawed shaped).

[11][12][16] It has a long perianth tube, but it is difficult to measure because of the slender, beaked ovary.

[9][10] It has a bronze-purple or purple carinate (ridged), recurved (up turned at the front edge) style branch, which has two violet-blue teeth.

[9] After the iris has flowered, it produces an ellipsoid seed capsule, 1.5–2.5 cm long, with 6 ridges, between May and August.

[2][9][11] As most irises are diploid, having two sets of chromosomes, this can be used to identify hybrids and classification of groupings.

It was originally found in the Caucasus and called Iris humilis by Friedrich August Marschall von Bieberstein in Flor.

[6][25] It was then found that Hugo Zapałowicz had published the iris in 'Conspectus florae Galiciae criticus' (Consp.

[28] Iris pontica grows on dry sunny grasslands and meadows,[11][12][20] of steppes,[4][7][28] and on limestone, chalky and granite mountain slopes.

[6][18] Iris pontica is listed as 'Vulnerable' in various Red Book of vascular plants in the Stavropol Territory in USSR, and also in Ukraine (since 1980).