Coastal Iris vs Common Kidney-Vetch

Iris atropurpurea compared with Anthyllis vulneraria

Key Differences

• Coastal Iris is Critically Endangered while Common Kidney-Vetch is Vulnerable.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Coastal Iris	Common Kidney-Vetch
Kingdom	Animalia (동물)	Plantae (식물)
Phylum	Arthropoda (절지동물)	Magnoliophyta (피자식물문)
Class	Insecta (곤충)	Magnoliopsida (목련강)
Order	Mantodea (사마귀목)	Fabales (콩목)
Family	Eremiaphilidae	Fabaceae
Genus	Iris	Anthyllis
Species	Iris atropurpurea	Anthyllis vulneraria

Conservation Status

Coastal Iris

CR — Critically Endangered

Common Kidney-Vetch

VU — Vulnerable

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Coastal Iris	Common Kidney-Vetch
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Coastal Iris

Habitat

Typically found in virtually all terrestrial and freshwater habitats.

Common Kidney-Vetch

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, and temperate coniferous forests, among 6 distinct biome types spanning the Indomalayan and Oceanian and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Libya), Asia (Japan), Europe (9 countries), North America (Canada, United States), and Oceania and the Pacific (Australia). Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Coastal Iris

Iris atropurpurea, the coastal iris or Sharon iris, is a bulbous geophyte in the family Iridaceae critically endangered and endemic to the coastal plain of central Israel, one of the most range-restricted irises in the world. The species is confined to a narrow strip of the Sharon plain sandy coastal habitat, a Mediterranean coastal sandstone and sandy soil ecosystem that has been almost entirely eliminated by the sprawling Tel Aviv metropolitan area and its associated agricultural conversion. Iris atropurpurea produces striking deep purple to blackish-purple flowers with intricate veining and yellow signals in late winter and early spring, blooming briefly before entering summer dormancy as a bulb in the dry Mediterranean season. Fewer than twenty natural populations of this species are thought to survive, all within a highly fragmented and disturbed coastal landscape under permanent threat from urban expansion, recreational pressure, invasive alien plants, and changes in grazing regimes that alter the open sandy habitat structure the iris requires. It is classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Conservation efforts include habitat protection in a few coastal reserves, translocation programs, and cultivation in Israeli botanical gardens to secure genetic material against the extinction of remaining wild populations.

Common Kidney-Vetch

Common Kidney-Vetch (<em>Anthyllis vulneraria</em>) is a flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to habitat degradation and agricultural intensification across parts of its range. It is widely distributed across Africa (Libya), Asia (Japan), Europe (nine countries), North America (Canada and the United States), and Oceania (Australia), occupying six distinct biome types and occurring within the Indomalayan and Oceanian biogeographic realms. The species typically grows in dry, calcareous grasslands, coastal cliffs, sand dunes, and rocky slopes, often favoring nutrient-poor soils. It is an important larval food plant for certain butterfly species, particularly the Small Blue butterfly in Europe, and contributes to soil fertility through nitrogen fixation via root nodules. Its cheerful yellow, orange, or red flower heads make it a recognizable component of chalk and limestone grassland communities. Biological traits of this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature.