Eastern Blue-Eyed Grass

Sisyrinchium atlanticum

Blue-eyed grass is an easy plant to miss.  The plant is low, the flowers are small and lightly colored, and the leaves are narrow and grass-like. They are easily recognized when found; however.  The grass-like leaves are unusual in that they are equitant at the base.  Equitant is a botanical term meaning they all fan out in the same plane.  The leaves of irises and gladioluses are also equitant.  The stem is winged, that is, there is a narrow leaf-like extension running down either side of the stem.  The flowers are light blue or blue-violet, or, rarely, white, and yellow in the center.  The three sepals and three petals are both colored and look almost identical, although they are somewhat different in size.  They are called tepals, a term botanists use to indicate petals or sepals in plants where the sepals cannot easily be told from the petals.  Each tepal has a tiny hair-like extension from the end.  Notice that the flowers emerge on thin stems from a little green wallet resembling a folded-leaf; this folded leaf is called a spathe.  Pollinated flowers will develop into small dark brown to purplish black capsules containing the seeds. 

The genus Sisyrinchium is a difficult one.  The species are rather variable, and the differences between species are often subtle.  Anita Cholewa, in the Flora of North America, warns that it is almost impossible to identify some species based on a single individual; a population of several individuals must be examined.  Henry Gleason, in the New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora, remarks that only two species of Sisyrinchium were known in eastern North America in 1890.  By 1912 there were 40, mostly because botanists had divided the two species into many.  Since then the number has been greatly reduced as botanists have lumped them back together.  According to the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora, only one other species is known in our area: slender blue-eyed grass (S. mucronatum), which has a very slender stem, with almost no wings.  It could occur in Wildwood, but has not yet been reported.  All of which goes to say that you should not be discouraged if you find it hard to identify a blue-eyed grass using any of the published field guides.

In the Eastern United States, blue-eyed grasses begin to bloom in May, but they keep on going until early autumn.  Eastern blue-eyed grass grows in moist meadows and coastal dunes from Maine to Wisconsin, south to Louisiana and Florida.  In Wildwood it can be found scattered in open moist areas, but there is an especially good population along the Riverway, beneath the eastern slope, south of the Outdoor Classroom.  Presumably moisture collects here at the base of the slope.

There are about 80 species of Sisyrinchium, in the New World and in Hawaii.  Not all can be called blue-eyed grasses, as the most common color in the tropics is yellow.  One species is also known in Great Britain and another in New Zealand, but these are believed to be introduced from the New World.  The genus name Sisyrinchium comes from the Greek sys, meaning "pig," and rhynchos, meaning "snout."  The name "pig nose" might seem rather odd for these delicate little plants.  Supposedly the name comes from the fact that pigs like to dig up and eat the bulbs of these plants.

The species name, atlanticum, refers to the Atlantic Ocean, and presumably comes from the populations that inhabit dunes along the Atlantic Coast.

Sisyrinchium is in the Iridaceae or Iris Family.  Members of this family share the character of having their flowers emerge from a folded green spathe.  Like blue-eyed grass, many of them also have equitant leaves.  The Iris Family includes many familiar species grown for their beautiful flowers, including irises, gladioluses, and crocuses.  Besides blue-eyed grass, Wildwood also has yellow iris, an introduced alien species, and may soon have Virginia blue-flag, a native iris, that may be planted along Connelly's Run to help stabilize the stream bank against erosion.

Look for blue-eyed grass in damp sunny places along the Riverway.  If you find it, it is well worth getting down on your knees to examine this lovely, delicate little flower.

GGC