Sisyrinchium montanum

Sisyrinchium montanum
Conservation status
Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Iridaceae
Genus:	Sisyrinchium
Species:	S. montanum
Binomial name
Sisyrinchium montanum Greene, 1899
Varieties[2]
S. montanum var. crebrum Fernald S. montanum var. montanum
Synonyms[3]
Sisyrinchium alpestre E.P.Bicknell (1899) Sisyrinchium heterocarpum E.P.Bicknell (1899)

Sisyrinchium montanum, the blue-eyed-grass, American blue-eyed-grass,^[4] or strict blue-eyed grass,^[5] 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.^[6]

It is very similar to S. angustifolium, with which it is sometimes combined.^[7]

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.^[7][8]

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  closed flowers or buds

References

1. NatureServe (2024). "Sisyrinchium montanum". Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
2. "Sisyrinchium montanum Greene". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
3. "Sisyrinchium montanum var. montanum". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
4. "Sisyrinchium montanum". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
5. NRCS. "Sisyrinchium montanum var. montanum". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Plants of British Columbia: Sisyrinchium montanum

• NRCS. "Sisyrinchium montanum". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
• Botany Photo of the Day: Sisyrinchium montanum

Media related to Sisyrinchium montanum at Wikimedia Commons