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California golden eyed grass, golden blue-eyed-grass, golden-eyed-grass, yellow-eyed grass

Habit Herbs, perennial, cespitose, dark brown to black when dry, to 6.2 dm, not glaucous.
Stems

simple, 2–6.8 mm wide, glabrous, margins entire, similar in color and texture to stem body.

Leaf

blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts.

Inflorescences

borne singly;

spathes mostly greenish, glabrous, keels entire;

outer 13–53 mm, 2.2–9 mm longer than inner, tapering evenly towards apex, margins basally connate 3–8 mm;

inner with keel straight to evenly curved, hyaline margins 0.5–1 mm, apex usually rounded, occasionally erose, ending 0.2–1 mm proximal to green apex.

Flowers

tepals medium to bright yellow with brownish veins;

outer tepals 12–18 mm, apex rounded or acute, aristate;

filaments ± distinct, glabrous;

ovary similar in color to foliage.

Capsules

dark brown to black, broadly fusiform or slightly turbinate, 6–13 mm;

pedicel erect to ascending.

Seeds

hemispherical, with shallow depression on flattened side, 0.7–1.5 mm, rugulose.

2n

= 32, 34, 36.

Sisyrinchium californicum

Phenology Flowering spring–late summer.
Habitat Moist areas near coast
Elevation 0–700 m (0–2300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 356.
Parent taxa Iridaceae > Sisyrinchium
Sibling taxa
S. albidum, S. angustifolium, S. arizonicum, S. atlanticum, S. bellum, S. biforme, S. campestre, S. capillare, S. cernuum, S. demissum, S. dichotomum, S. elmeri, S. ensigerum, S. funereum, S. fuscatum, S. groenlandicum, S. halophilum, S. hitchcockii, S. idahoense, S. langloisii, S. littorale, S. longipes, S. miamiense, S. minus, S. montanum, S. mucronatum, S. nashii, S. pallidum, S. pruinosum, S. radicatum, S. rosulatum, S. sagittiferum, S. sarmentosum, S. septentrionale, S. strictum, S. xerophyllum
Synonyms Marica californica, Hydastylus borealis, Hydastylus brachypus, Hydastylus californicus, S. boreale, S. brachypus, S. flavidum, S. lineatum
Name authority (Ker Gawler) W. T. Aiton: in W. Aiton and W. T. Aiton, Hortus Kew. 4: 135. (1812)
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