Registration Overview
AIS is the official world registry of iris. Each iris variety is first “Registered” with the AIS and can then later be “Introduced”. An iris is considered “Registered” when the application is accepted and approved by the AIS Registrar. Following this, when an iris is offered for sale to the general public and when proof of that is submitted to the AIS Registrar it would then be considered “Introduced”. The date/year of Registration and Introduction are usually different.
Procedures, instructions, forms, and guidelines for reserving a name for your iris or for registering your cultivar, and requirements for submitting photographs may be found on the Iris Registration page of the Hybridizers Section or by clicking: Hybridizers/Iris Registration
Iris Check Lists
The AIS Registrar is the world wide registration authority for cultivated non-bulbous irises. The governing standard is the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP or Cultivated Plant Code) as adopted by the International Union of Biological Sciences International Commission for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants.
Annually the AIS Registrar publishes a booklet titled “Registrations and Introductions” (R&I) that contains the names and descriptions of all irises registered and/or introduced that year. Aside from other reasons for having it, this publication satisfies the requirements of the ICNCP.
In 1929 the first hardbound Check List was published by the Americam Iris Society and the issuance of a new Check List every ten years has become a tradition. Beginning with the 1949 Check List, each ten-year book incorporates the information contained in the Registrations and Introductions for that decade. Some descripitons are reworded or reformatted slightly for clarity and consistency. Minor typographical corrections are made and if additional parental information has been made available, parentages are augmented or restated. Some registrations appearing in annual reports may be deleted if the hybridizer has stated that no stock was distributed, stock of the plant destroyed, and the name does not appear in later breeding records. When discrepancies appear between what was printed in an R&I and what appears in the Check List, the Check List entries should be presumed to be more accurate.
Both the R&Is and Check Lists are available in hard copy from the AIS Storefront area of the AIS website.
The registration and introduction information for all irises is also available in an on-line database. This database is available as part of the electronic membership service of the AIS. For more information on AIS Emembership and the online database please click here: AIS Emembership information
To become an AIS Emember please see the details provided in the AIS membership area.
AIS Emembers may access Irisregister through the following link that takes you to the main Emembers Services area page or alternately by going directly to the Irisregister area: Emembers Services-Irisregister section