Iris flower data set
Encyclopedia
Data set
A data set is a collection of data, usually presented in tabular form. Each column represents a particular variable. Each row corresponds to a given member of the data set in question. Its values for each of the variables, such as height and weight of an object or values of random numbers. Each...
introduced by Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS was an English statistician, evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and geneticist. Among other things, Fisher is well known for his contributions to statistics by creating Fisher's exact test and Fisher's equation...
(1936) as an example of discriminant analysis. It is sometimes called Anderson's Iris data set because Edgar Anderson
Edgar Anderson
Edgar Anderson was an American botanist. His 1949 book Introgressive Hybridization was an original and important contribution to botanical genetics....
collected the data to quantify the geographic variation of Iris
Iris (plant)
Iris is a genus of 260-300species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species...
flowers in the Gaspé Peninsula
Gaspé Peninsula
The Gaspésie , or Gaspé Peninsula or the Gaspé, is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, extending into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
.
The dataset consists of 50 samples from each of three species of Iris flowers (Iris setosa, Iris virginica and Iris versicolor
Iris versicolor
Iris versicolor, also commonly known as the Harlequin Blueflag, Larger Blue Flag, Northern Blue Flag, and other variations of those names, is a species of Iris native to North America where it is common in sedge meadows, marshes, and along streambanks and shores.-Growth:I. versicolor is a perennial...
). Four feature
Features (pattern recognition)
In pattern recognition, features are the individual measurable heuristic properties of the phenomena being observed. Choosing discriminating and independent features is key to any pattern recognition algorithm being successful in classification...
s were measured from each sample, they are the length and the width of sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
and petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
, in centimeters. Based on the combination of the four features, Fisher developed a linear discriminant model
Linear discriminant analysis
Linear discriminant analysis and the related Fisher's linear discriminant are methods used in statistics, pattern recognition and machine learning to find a linear combination of features which characterizes or separates two or more classes of objects or events...
to distinguish the species from each other.
Use of the data set
Based on Fishers linear discriminant model, this data set became a typical test case for many classification techniques in machine learningMachine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
such as support vector machines.
The use of this data set in cluster analysis however is uncommon, since the data set only contains two clusters with rather obvious separation. One of the clusters contains the Iris setosa species, while the other cluster contains both Iris virginica and Iris versicolor and is not separable without the species information Fisher used. This makes the data set a good example to explain the difference between supervised and unsupervised techniques in data mining
Data mining
Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
: Fishers linear discriminant model can only be obtained when the object species are known.
Data set
| Sepal Length | Sepal Width | Petal Length | Petal Width | Species |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.9 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.7 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.6 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.4 | 3.9 | 1.7 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 4.6 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.4 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.9 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.1 | setosa |
| 5.4 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.8 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.8 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0.1 | setosa |
| 4.3 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 0.1 | setosa |
| 5.8 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.7 | 4.4 | 1.5 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 5.4 | 3.9 | 1.3 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 5.7 | 3.8 | 1.7 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 5.4 | 3.4 | 1.7 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 4.6 | 3.6 | 1.0 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.3 | 1.7 | 0.5 | setosa |
| 4.8 | 3.4 | 1.9 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 5.2 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.2 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.7 | 3.2 | 1.6 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.8 | 3.1 | 1.6 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.4 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 5.2 | 4.1 | 1.5 | 0.1 | setosa |
| 5.5 | 4.2 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.9 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.5 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.9 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.1 | setosa |
| 4.4 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 4.5 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 4.4 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.5 | 1.6 | 0.6 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.8 | 1.9 | 0.4 | setosa |
| 4.8 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0.3 | setosa |
| 5.1 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 4.6 | 3.2 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.3 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 5.0 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 0.2 | setosa |
| 7.0 | 3.2 | 4.7 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 6.4 | 3.2 | 4.5 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 6.9 | 3.1 | 4.9 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 5.5 | 2.3 | 4.0 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.5 | 2.8 | 4.6 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 5.7 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.3 | 3.3 | 4.7 | 1.6 | versicolor |
| 4.9 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 6.6 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 5.2 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 5.0 | 2.0 | 3.5 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 5.9 | 3.0 | 4.2 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 6.0 | 2.2 | 4.0 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 6.1 | 2.9 | 4.7 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 5.6 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.7 | 3.1 | 4.4 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 5.6 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 5.8 | 2.7 | 4.1 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 6.2 | 2.2 | 4.5 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 5.6 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 1.1 | versicolor |
| 5.9 | 3.2 | 4.8 | 1.8 | versicolor |
| 6.1 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.3 | 2.5 | 4.9 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 6.1 | 2.8 | 4.7 | 1.2 | versicolor |
| 6.4 | 2.9 | 4.3 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.6 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 6.8 | 2.8 | 4.8 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 6.7 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 1.7 | versicolor |
| 6.0 | 2.9 | 4.5 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 5.7 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 5.5 | 2.4 | 3.8 | 1.1 | versicolor |
| 5.5 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 5.8 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 1.2 | versicolor |
| 6.0 | 2.7 | 5.1 | 1.6 | versicolor |
| 5.4 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 6.0 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 1.6 | versicolor |
| 6.7 | 3.1 | 4.7 | 1.5 | versicolor |
| 6.3 | 2.3 | 4.4 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 5.6 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 5.5 | 2.5 | 4.0 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 5.5 | 2.6 | 4.4 | 1.2 | versicolor |
| 6.1 | 3.0 | 4.6 | 1.4 | versicolor |
| 5.8 | 2.6 | 4.0 | 1.2 | versicolor |
| 5.0 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 1.0 | versicolor |
| 5.6 | 2.7 | 4.2 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 5.7 | 3.0 | 4.2 | 1.2 | versicolor |
| 5.7 | 2.9 | 4.2 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.2 | 2.9 | 4.3 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 5.1 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 1.1 | versicolor |
| 5.7 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 1.3 | versicolor |
| 6.3 | 3.3 | 6.0 | 2.5 | virginica |
| 5.8 | 2.7 | 5.1 | 1.9 | virginica |
| 7.1 | 3.0 | 5.9 | 2.1 | virginica |
| 6.3 | 2.9 | 5.6 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.5 | 3.0 | 5.8 | 2.2 | virginica |
| 7.6 | 3.0 | 6.6 | 2.1 | virginica |
| 4.9 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 1.7 | virginica |
| 7.3 | 2.9 | 6.3 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.7 | 2.5 | 5.8 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 7.2 | 3.6 | 6.1 | 2.5 | virginica |
| 6.5 | 3.2 | 5.1 | 2.0 | virginica |
| 6.4 | 2.7 | 5.3 | 1.9 | virginica |
| 6.8 | 3.0 | 5.5 | 2.1 | virginica |
| 5.7 | 2.5 | 5.0 | 2.0 | virginica |
| 5.8 | 2.8 | 5.1 | 2.4 | virginica |
| 6.4 | 3.2 | 5.3 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 6.5 | 3.0 | 5.5 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 7.7 | 3.8 | 6.7 | 2.2 | virginica |
| 7.7 | 2.6 | 6.9 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 6.0 | 2.2 | 5.0 | 1.5 | virginica |
| 6.9 | 3.2 | 5.7 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 5.6 | 2.8 | 4.9 | 2.0 | virginica |
| 7.7 | 2.8 | 6.7 | 2.0 | virginica |
| 6.3 | 2.7 | 4.9 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.7 | 3.3 | 5.7 | 2.1 | virginica |
| 7.2 | 3.2 | 6.0 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.2 | 2.8 | 4.8 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.1 | 3.0 | 4.9 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.4 | 2.8 | 5.6 | 2.1 | virginica |
| 7.2 | 3.0 | 5.8 | 1.6 | virginica |
| 7.4 | 2.8 | 6.1 | 1.9 | virginica |
| 7.9 | 3.8 | 6.4 | 2.0 | virginica |
| 6.4 | 2.8 | 5.6 | 2.2 | virginica |
| 6.3 | 2.8 | 5.1 | 1.5 | virginica |
| 6.1 | 2.6 | 5.6 | 1.4 | virginica |
| 7.7 | 3.0 | 6.1 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 6.3 | 3.4 | 5.6 | 2.4 | virginica |
| 6.4 | 3.1 | 5.5 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.0 | 3.0 | 4.8 | 1.8 | virginica |
| 6.9 | 3.1 | 5.4 | 2.1 | virginica |
| 6.7 | 3.1 | 5.6 | 2.4 | virginica |
| 6.9 | 3.1 | 5.1 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 5.8 | 2.7 | 5.1 | 1.9 | virginica |
| 6.8 | 3.2 | 5.9 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 6.7 | 3.3 | 5.7 | 2.5 | virginica |
| 6.7 | 3.0 | 5.2 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 6.3 | 2.5 | 5.0 | 1.9 | virginica |
| 6.5 | 3.0 | 5.2 | 2.0 | virginica |
| 6.2 | 3.4 | 5.4 | 2.3 | virginica |
| 5.9 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 1.8 | virginica |