Abstract: Studies on morphology, fertility and chromosome pairing behavior in meiosis of Iris japonica, I. confusa and their artificial hybrids were carried out. It is concluded from the results that: (1) Morpho-logically I. japonica was similar to I.confusa, and the general appearance of the interspecific hybrid pla-nts was intermediate between their parents. (2) It was easy to obtain the hybrid seeds, and most of the seeds germinated normally and developed into vigorous plants. The chromosome number was 30 in root-tip cells of the hybrid. The Fi hybrids showed a comparatively high chromosomal pairing in meiosis of pollen mother cells at MI with an average of 13.90 bivalents, and mean meiotic configuration was 0.95Ⅰ + 5.95Ⅱ (rod) +7.95Ⅱ (ring) + 0.05 Ⅲ + 0.27Ⅳ . This result indicated that I. japonica and I. confusa shared the highly homologous genomes and were closely related. etc.

Key words: Iris japonica