prairie blue-eyed grass

not listed

N5? - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

Prairie blue-eyed grass is an erect, 4″ to 16″ tall, perennial forb that rises in a tuft of 2 to 6 basal leaves and one or more flowering stalks from coarse, fibrous roots.

The basal leaves are pale green, linear, flat, 3″ to 10″ long, and 1 ⁄32″ to ⅛″ wide. They are sharply pointed at the tip and are usually hairless.

The stem is light green to olive green and may be slightly covered with a whitish waxy substance (glaucous). It is unbranched, distinctly winged, and no more than ⅛″wide.

The inflorescence is a solitary flower or a single, unstalked, flattened, fan-shaped cluster (cyme) of 2 to 11 flowers at the end of the stem. The cyme is subtended and partially enclosed by a pair of claw-like bracts (spathes). There is no leaf-like bract below the spathe.

The spathe is ½″ to 2 3 ⁄16″ long, green, and not at all or only slightly tinged purple. The outer bract is 1½ to 2 times longer than the inner bract. The margins are thin, membranous, and translucent or transparent. The margin of the outer bract is distinct all the way to the base.

The flowers are ½″ to 1″ wide. They are borne on thin, thread-like stalks that are about as long as the spathes. They are drooping when in bud, becoming erect when in flower. Each flower has 3 petals, 3 petal-like sepals (6 tepals), 3 stamens, and 3 styles. The tepals are spreading, inversely lance-shaped, and ¼″ to ½″ long. They are rounded to notched at the tip with a bristle-like extension at the tip. They are usually pale violet or light blue, sometimes white, and they are yellow at the base. The stamens have white filaments and yellow anthers. The filaments are fused for most of their length around the styles. The styles extend beyond the anthers.

The fruit is an egg-shaped, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long, light to dark brown capsule with many seeds.

4″ to 16″

Pale violet, light blue, or white

Mountain blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum var. montanum) spathe is often strongly tinged purple. The margins of the outer spathe bract are fused for 1 ⁄32″ to ¼″ at the base. The flowers are bluish-violet.

Narrow-leaved blue-eyed-grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) leaves and stems are not glaucous. There may be 2 to 4 stalked flower clusters on the stem, causing the stem to appear branched.

May to July

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 24, 28, 30.

Native

Common

Blue-eyed Grass in bud at TNC Cox Unit

Blue-eyed Grass at TNC Cox Unit

Blue-Eye Grass

Plant

Inflorescence

Flower

Location: Weaver Dunes Preserve, Cox Unit

Blue-eyed Grass at TNC Cox Unit

Location: Kellogg Weaver Dunes SNA, Weaver Dunes Unit

Location: Kellogg Weaver Dunes SNA, Weaver Dunes Unit

Location: Kellogg Weaver Dunes SNA, Weaver Dunes Unit

Blue-Eye Grass

Location: Pennington County