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
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Sisyrinchium
Species:
S. montanum
Binomial name
Sisyrinchium montanum
Synonyms[1]
  • Sisyrinchium alpestre E.P.Bicknell
  • Sisyrinchium heterocarpum E.P.Bicknell

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
    closed flowers or buds

References
  1. "Sisyrinchium montanum". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 20 July 2014 – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  2. "Sisyrinchium montanum". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  3. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Sisyrinchium montanum var. montanum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team.
  4. 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.
  5. 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). Vol. 26. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  6. Plants of British Columbia: Sisyrinchium montanum

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