Western Blue-eyed Grass (Plants of the Foothill College California Native Plant Garden)

Western Blue-eyed Grass

Sisyrinchium bellum

Family ²

Iridaceae

Description ³

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, green to ashy olive when dry, to 3.8 dm, not glaucous. Stems branched, with 1–2 nodes, 1.5–5.3 mm wide, glabrous, margins entire to denticulate apically, similar in color and texture to stem body; first internode 11–33 cm, usually equaling or longer than leaves; distalmost node with 2–3 branches. Leaf blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts. Inflorescences borne singly; spathes green, obviously wider than supporting branch, glabrous, keels entire to denticulate; outer 14–30 mm, usually 2–7 mm longer than inner, tapering evenly towards apex, margins basally connate 4–7.6 mm; inner with keel evenly curved to straight, hyaline margins 0.1–0.7 mm wide, apex abruptly widening, ending 0.2–1.3 mm proximal to green apex. Flowers: tepals light blue to dark bluish violet or rarely purplish or white, bases yellow; outer tepals often broadly cuneate, 10–17 mm, apex rounded, truncate, or occasionally emarginate, aristate; filaments connate ± entirely, usually glabrous; ovary similar in color to foliage. Capsules tan to dark brown, globose to obovoid, 3–5 mm; pedicel erect to ascending.

Community ²

Foothill Woodland, Yellow Pine Forest, Sagebrush Scrub, wetland-riparian

Flowering ²

Mar- May

Ethnobotany ²

"Costanoan Drug (Gastrointestinal Aid, Febrifuge)
Bocek, Barbara R. 1984 Ethnobotany of Costanoan Indians, California, Based on Collections by John P. Harrington. Economic Botany 38(2):240-255 (p. 29)
Luiseno Drug (Cathartic)
Sparkman, Philip S. 1908 The Culture of the Luiseno Indians. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 8(4):187-234 (p. 233)
Pomo, Kashaya Drug (Gastrointestinal Aid; Respiratory Aid)
Goodrich, Jennie and Claudia Lawson 1980 Kashaya Pomo Plants. Los Angeles. American Indian Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles (p. 24)

Garden Location ²

Sources and Credits

(c) Franco Folini, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/78425154@N00/4350730696
(c) gillian360, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
(c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/5019231

More Info

iNat Map

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