It's funny you should ask, I've known the markings it refers to for years but just looked up its definition a few days ago.

Plicata doesn't come up in my dictionary, but plicate and plication do. Plicate means pleated or folded like a paper fan and plication is essentially the same but can refer to "the pleating and stitching of the walls of a body organ in order to reduce its size".

It would seem to me that the term plicata would better apply to what we call ruffles and in some cases actual pleating. Here's a recent introduction showing beautiful pleating on its falls

All that aside, here are some examples of plicata markation (I had a hard time finding some, because I don't grow many):

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I almost started to post photos of every type, but it would be easier to link to this page describing them. They've even linked some of the names to photos.

http://iris.stores.yahoo.net/glossary.html

Brock

thanks, brock for you reply - enjoyed the link you posted - good information for a beginner

mrtoad

Plicatas, as a type of pattern found in irises, refers to a flower of one color (the 'ground') with the edges of the falls, and often the standards as well, being ringed or edged with a different color. The color can be a solid band, or appear as stitching, feathering or sanding depending on the variety. In previous decades it referred to a specific genetic expression, but now I think it is pretty broadly applied to any iris with a band of color regardless of genes.

Other major iris pattern types are:

Neglecta - a purple iris with lighter standards and darker falls.
Amoena - white standards over colored falls.
Variegata - yellow toned standards over red or purple toned falls.
Bitone - lighter standards over darker falls.
Bicolor - standards of one color, falls of another.
Self - all petals of the same color and tone.

There are a couple of others as well: glaciata/luminata, blends, etc., as well as combinations of the patterns.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Iris Glossary

Thank-you for actually answering mrtoad's question Mike! :) You'd think I might actually include the answer to a question in my response not just photos. lol

Don't know what to say for myself sometimes.

Brock

Brock- No worries. Your pics were the perfect demonstration of the plicata pattern. =)

Mike