Needletip blue-eyed grass
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. February 2014.
Scientific name: Sisyrinchium mucronatum Michx.; also S. intermedium E.P. Bicknell
Common name(s): needletip blue-eyed grass, needle-tipped blue-eyed grass, slender blue-eyed grass, narrow-leaved blue-eyed grass, Michaux’s blue-eyed grass
Links: USDA PLANTS Profile , NPIN Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- mid-June
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- slender leaves
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- solitary inflorescence can have multiple flowers
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- fruit with purplish spathe
Description:
-perennial
-narrow stems
-faint wing margins
-sessile single inflorescense
-alternate basal leaves
-easily confused with S. montanum, which has wider leaves and usually lacks purplish spathes (bracts surrounding the inflorescence)
-listed as a species of Special Concern in ME
Habitat:
-field and meadows
-forest edges
-shores of rives
Sources:
Go Botany. “Sisyrinchium Mucronatum Michx.” Sisyrinchium Mucronatum (Needle-Tipped Blue-Eyed-Grass): Go Botany, 2020, gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/sisyrinchium/mucronatum/.