As some of you may know, we are working on an ambitious project — Illustrated Flora of Turkey. Botanists and artists from across Türkiye are collaborating to bring together all available plant knowledge of this land, and to share it visually through scientific illustrations — painstakingly prepared, and still being prepared, by skilled hands.
I work on this project as art editor. My main role is to be the link between the artists, the botanists, and the plants — reviewing every illustration against the standards we hold. Though I rarely get the chance to illustrate for the project myself, this trip was one of those rare exceptions.
I had just set off on a botanical adventure with my father, whose specialty is irises. From south to east, east to north, we travelled across Türkiye in search of Iris species. Following mountain roads all the way, the landscapes I witnessed were extraordinary — the kind worth carrying with you. Travelling with my father, who knows every mountain, every river, every forgotten corner of the wild, made the journey deeply informative too. By the end I could name every ruined castle, every peak, every river and bridge we had passed. I’ll probably forget all of it within a month — but still.
Working in the field as a botanical artist alongside a botanist is both a privilege and a genuine challenge. A botanist wants to cover as many locations as possible and collect as many species as the trip allows. A botanical artist wants to stop and paint the moment a species is found. This is the fundamental tension between the two.
A proper scientific illustration requires a considerable amount of time. Something can always be done with less — but the result may be less accurate, less alive, or both.
On this trip, we tried to find the middle ground. On some days I was given enough time to work through my sketches properly; on others I was up at five in the morning, racing against the clock with a considerable amount of stress.
In the end, I managed to complete colour sketches of three Iris species within a week. Here is how it unfolded.
11 June
We went to a location near Adana hoping to find Iris junonia. According to records from the 1970s, this had once been a vast field full of irises. We found nothing — not even leaves. A sad day, with nothing to paint.
12 June
We headed to the Amanos Mountains around Osmaniye to look for Iris kirkwoodiae. June is too late for its flowers, so we were only looking for leaves — not a sketching day for me. Even so, the flora of the Amanos Mountains is so rich and beautiful that simply being there made it worthwhile. That day we were also given a new possible location for I. junonia by Mehmet Çelik.
13 June
We drove to the highlands north of Kadirli in search of I. junonia — and found it. Magnificently. A hillside full of irises: a natural rock garden scattered with countless blooms, alongside Asphodeline, Verbascum, Gundelia and many others. What a sight. I collected several samples, including a rare albino iris, and crossed every finger I had. A few hours later we were back at the hotel, and I worked late into the night.
14 June
I woke at five to continue. The previous night had been long, but colour studies and flower dissections were still missing. I managed to delay our departure slightly and worked until ten in the morning, doing what I could. Then we were back on the road — not for painting this time, but to collect fruits of I. peshmeniana from a newly recorded location. We drove all the way to Malatya through mountain roads. I kept a pot of I. junonia leaf samples beside me the entire journey.
15 June
In the morning we returned to the mountains for I. peshmeniana. In the afternoon the group continued on, but they dropped me at the hotel first — which was wonderful. Half a day to keep working on I. junonia.
16 June
A long driving day: from Malatya all the way to Ardahan, passing through Munzur Valley and Tunceli. Between Erzincan and Erzurum, we came across entire fields of I. spuria subsp. musulmanica right along our route. We stopped, collected some for herbarium specimens, and planted a few into pots for me to paint. I honestly didn’t think I’d manage it — mostly buds — but I took what I could. We arrived in Ardahan utterly exhausted.
17 June
Two locations around Ardahan. In the morning we drove toward Çıldır to look for I. aphylla. It was already too late in the season for flowers, and we found only one late-blooming individual. A single specimen is not enough to make the kind of illustration I had in mind, so nothing to paint here — though the botanists did their work. In the afternoon we turned in the opposite direction, toward Yalnızçam, for I. sibirica. My father mentioned, as we drove, that Ian Hedge and Peter Davis — who compiled the previous Flora of Turkey — had passed along this very road to collect specimens in 1957. Even in 2020 it was a narrow, winding track; I can’t begin to imagine it then.
Just as we arrived at the plant’s location, a violent storm broke out. Torrential rain turned to hail; the sky darkened completely. We waited in the car, patient but quietly aware that the iris flowers could not survive this. After about an hour the storm passed, and we climbed the hillside along the river. Almost everything had been badly damaged — except for one flower that had sheltered behind a large rock. I collected that one, along with several others mostly still in bud, and planted them in pots. Back at the hotel, I had two species in hand, but managed only a rough overall sketch of I. sibirica that night.
18 June
Up at five again — a true marathon of a day. My main goal was I. sibirica, but the flowers were in poor condition and I had only one bud slowly opening. While I waited, I did quick work on I. spuria instead. From that moment until noon, I worked on both specimens simultaneously: a flower of one, then the other opening, back and forth — drawing, photographing, dissecting, pressing, all at once. A marathon, as I said. In the end I had drawings and colour studies for both, though not as much as I’d have liked. I kept everything in pots and we drove home.
19–20 June
At home, working non-stop with the potted plants. I went over all three specimens again and again, not wanting to miss a single detail. Some of the buds were still opening after all that travelling, which made me a very fortunate artist. By the end of those two days I was utterly spent — but I had three complete sketches waiting to be finished.
