Iris

During our evening stroll we came across this beautiful iris flower. I very much like the deep blue/purple colour.

The iris is also the symbol of the Brussels region. This dates back to the times when the city of Brussels was founded on marshy grounds. The plant used to surround the city walls and, according to one of the legends, gave a key victory to the Dukes of Brabant: knowing the plant could only grow in shallow water, the Duke's troops could gallop through the flooded plains by keeping to the Iris covered areas. His opponents however, seeing them crossing but not knowing of the Iris, attempted to cross but got stuck in the marshes.


Edit: I see that the picture of the pansy that I posted one year ago also has a similar blue/purple colour! What a coincidence! :)