It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions and hybridized for use in the garden.

It has a thin, slender rhizome,[3][4][5] that is about 2 cm in diameter,[6] fibrous and has a creeping habit.

[17][18] After the plant has flowered and set seed, the leaves die in the late summer.

[6] The stem also has keeled, lanceolate, green, spathes (leaves of the flower bud) (or bracts).

[10] It has large,[13] lightly scented,[10] flowers that are up to 6–12 cm (2–5 in) in diameter,[9][14][23] and they come in shades of lilac,[14][16][26] mauve-blue,[19] violet-blue,[3][5][8] purple-blue,[10][15][22] violet,[18][20] or blue.

[27] The falls are broadly ovate, elliptic, or orbicular with a long claw (section leading to the stem).

[7] They have purple or violet veining,[19] and a central yellow or white stripe or signal area.

[23][25][21] The standards are short, lanceolate or oblanceolate, erect wavy, and 3–6 cm (1–2 in) long and 8–20 mm wide.

[3][7] After the iris has flowered, it produces an oblong-ovate, hexagonal (2.5–4 cm long)[5][16]) seed capsule in September.

[5][16] Inside the capsule, are light brown, angular seeds,[5][14] with a loose membranous testa (surface).

[31] In May 2014, a study was carried out on the hepatoprotective activity of Iris spuria against paracetamol induced toxicity.

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

[27] It has been counted several times; 2n=22, Westergaraard, 1938; 2n=22, Lenz & Day, 1963; 2n=40, Banerji, 1970; 2n=40, Sharma & Sar., 1971; 2n=40, Roy et al., 1988.

[49] On 4 November 1876, John Gilbert Baker described the iris in The Gardeners' Chronicle on page 583.

[42] Iris spuria is native to a very wide area, from Africa, to temperate and tropical Asia and Europe.

[46][50] and in the Russian, Siberian regions of Altay, Chelyabinsk, Gorno-Altay, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tomsk.

[46] In the Middle Asia regions of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.

[46] Within tropical Asia, it is found in the Indian sub-continental regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Pakistan.

[34][46][50] and in the middle European regions of Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary.

[5][12][14] Within eastern European it is found in the regions of Moldova, Bashkortostan, Ukraine,[16][46] and Serbia.

[14][15][16] It can be found naturalised in damp, grassy places, by ditches, on banks and on roadside verges.

[5][34] In the Slovak Republic, it is classified as a 'critically endangered' species, and listed in the Red Book, with the meadows to the north and east of Štúrovo, now protected.

[10][37] They prefer hot and dry summers,[9][48] only requiring plenty of water during the spring.

[9][10][37] It is best planted from dormant rhizomes in autumn,[37] and deeper in the soil than Iris germanica.

Adult weevils emerge from the seed capsules, fly off for aestivation (summer dormancy) and hibernation within the soil.

[20] Due to the wide range of species, (with various tolerances for heat, salt or cold resistance), they have been very useful to plant breeders.

[20] Many of the modern cultivars have been breed with larger flowers in a wider range of colours than wild species.

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