Sisyrinchium montanum
Sisyrinchium montanum, the blue-eyed-grass, American blue-eyed-grass,[2] or strict blue-eyed grass,[3] is a grass-like species of plant from the genus Sisyrinchium, native to northern North America from Newfoundland west to easternmost Alaska, and south to Pennsylvania in the east, and to New Mexico in the Rocky Mountains. It has also been introduced to parts of France, likely during the First World War.[4]
Sisyrinchium montanum | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Order: | Asparagales |
Family: | Iridaceae |
Genus: | Sisyrinchium |
Species: | S. montanum |
Binomial name | |
Sisyrinchium montanum | |
Synonyms[1] | |
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It is very similar to S. angustifolium, with which it is sometimes combined.[5]
Description
Sisyrinchium montanum is a herbaceous perennial plant that grows in clumps between 10 and 50 cm (4 and 20 in) tall. Its stems have wings with entire to finely toothed margins. The leaves and stem are slender, 3 mm (1⁄8 in) broad, green or brownish, with sharp edges and a fine point.
The flowers are produced in a small cyme of two to five together emerging from a spathe, each flower about 2 cm (3⁄4 in) diameter, with six purplish tepals with a yellowish base and yellow stamens. The fruit is a capsule 4.5–6 mm (0.18–0.24 in) long, containing numerous small black seeds.[5][6]
- closed flowers or buds
References
- "Sisyrinchium montanum". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 20 July 2014 – via The Plant List.
- "Sisyrinchium montanum". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 1 July 2014.
- "Sisyrinchium montanum var. montanum". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA.
- Sabrina Imbler (2019-12-06). "In France, a Bloody WWI Battlefield Has Become a Wildlife Refuge". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
Patches of the forest bloom with Sisyrinchium montanum, or American blue-eyed grass, which stowed away as seeds on the hooves of U.S. Army horses that came through Verdun.
- Cholewa, Anita F.; Henderson, Douglass M. (2002). "Sisyrinchium montanum". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). 26. New York and Oxford – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
- Plants of British Columbia: Sisyrinchium montanum
- "Sisyrinchium montanum". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA.
- Botany Photo of the Day: Sisyrinchium montanum
Media related to Sisyrinchium montanum at Wikimedia Commons