Eye-riss?

An early spring, with nice long evenings, not too much rain. And that brings out the roving salespeople, trying to promote new roofs, gutters, yard services, etc. One evening this week, a young man was trying to get me to book an evaluation for gutters (which I do need, but I'm not going to submit to an in-house sales pitch). He seemed a little distracted, for which he apologized saying it was the end of his shift, and by the way, what kind of flower is that? I said it was an iris. 'Eye-riss?' he repeated, as though he had never heard the word. He said he had never seen anything like it, and thought it looked alien and other-worldly. 

It is a particularly nice one.