Flora of North America species comparison

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Xyris baldwiniana

Baldwin's yelloweyed grass
Habit Herbs, perennial, densely cespitose, 15–40(–50) cm.
Leaves

erect or ascending, 10–30 cm;

sheaths glossy light brown or red-brown, firm;

blade green, linear to filiform, often angularly terete, or sulcate, rarely to 1mm wide.
Inflorescences

scape sheaths exceeded by leaves;

scapes linear, straight or flexuous, terete, 1 mm wide, rarely 1-ribbed;

spikes ovoid to ellipsoid, 4–7 mm, apex acute;

fertile bracts 4–5 mm, margins entire or erose, apex rounded.
Flowers

lateral sepals included, reddish brown, slightly curved, less than 5 mm, keel scarious, lacerate from middle to tip;

petals unfolding in morning, blade obovate, to 5 mm;

staminodes beardless.
Seeds

translucent, fusiform to cylindric, (0.7–)0.8–1 mm, finely lined longitudinally.
2n

= 18.

Xyris baldwiniana
Phenology Flowering late spring–fall.
Habitat Moist to wet sands, sandy peats of bogs, pine savanna, ditches and low cleared areas, coastal plain
Elevation 0–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico (Chiapas); Central America (Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua)
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The beardless staminodes and the long, translucent seeds distinguish Xyris baldwiniana. Its leaf blades vary from terete to flat, and in eastern Texas and North Carolina the flat-leaved ones have been mistaken for X. elliottii. This same problem exists in Floridian narrow-leaved X. elliottii, which bears a strong resemblance to X. baldwiniana but has bearded staminodes and larger spikes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Xyridaceae > Xyris
Sibling taxa
X. ambigua, X. brevifolia, X. caroliniana, X. difformis, X. drummondii, X. elliottii, X. fimbriata, X. flabelliformis, X. isoetifolia, X. jupicai, X. laxifolia, X. longisepala, X. montana, X. platylepis, X. scabrifolia, X. serotina, X. smalliana, X. stricta, X. tennesseensis, X. torta
Synonyms X. baldwiniana var. tenuifolia, X. juncea, X. setacea
Name authority Schultes: in J. A. Schultes and J. H. Schultes, Mant. 1: 351. (1822)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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