the iris species in southeast abbeville, louisiana can reportedly be traced back to its original heritage or origin of descent with the use of pedigree. some of these pedigrees have been put together with the help of charles arny in 1958. ongoing research of "iris nelsonii" can be found in a few university labs, testing for the genetics of the species. the origin of the species, by decoding dna sequences, may help explain the process of hybridization of new species by introgression. michael l. arnold, ph. d., working in the university of georgia department of genetics, is currently studying this model by observing the genotype of several "iris nelsonii" and other iris from the "hexagonae" series.