Plant Name
Scientific Name: Sisyrinchium demissum
Synonyms: Sisyrinchium longipedunculatum, S. macrocarpon
Common Names: Stiff Blue-eyed Grass, Dwarf Blue-eyed Grass, Blue Star Grass
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Riparian. These attractive wildflowers grow in moist meadows and along streams, springs, and seeps. These were photographed in the Arivaca Cienega, a desert wetland in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.
Flower Color: Sapphire blue to bluish violet, White (rare)
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer
Height: Up to 20 inches (50 cm) tall
Description: The flowers are on long, slender stems and emerge from 2 opposite bracts. The individual flowers have yellow stamens and 6 tepals (petals and petal-like sepals) with pointed tips and yellow at the base. The flowers are followed by small, spherical, pale brown seed capsules. The leaves are grasslike, light green to glaucous green in color, hairless, parallel-veined, and narrowly sword-shaped. The plants form dense, grasslike clumps.
The other Sisyrinchium species found here have yellow to orange flowers.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Subclass: Liliidae
Order: Liliales
Family: Iridaceae – Iris family
Genus: Sisyrinchium L. – blue-eyed grass
Species: Sisyrinchium demissum Greene – stiff blue-eyed grass
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