Wait! That's not a cattail!

I added some cattails to one of my hot tub ponds last year. Cattails are excellent water purifiers, as well as being edible. Knowing that, I dug up a few from a swampy area near a local Publix supermarket.

The only thing is... I just found out they weren't cattails. How did I find out?

They bloomed!

Holy moly... that ain't a cattail.

I looked it up in my guide to Florida wildflowers. It's called a Dixie iris. The bloom is almost 6" across... and it's a native.

What a lovely surprise!

Here's a shot from further back:

You can tell, hopefully, how I originally confused them with cattails (especially since I dug them out as small plants). I'm really thrilled to have made this mistake. These irises are truly stunning. Not edible, sadly, but still... it brightened my day to be surprised by incredible flowers. Let's take another look:

Amazing. God is incredibly creative.

Note to self: time to go looking for cattails again.