Xyris elliottii
Xyris scabrifolia
Elliott's yelloweyed grass
Harper's yelloweyed grass
compact.
compact.
in narrow fans to erect, 10–30(–40) cm;
sheath base tan to brown, firm;
blade mostly green or tinged with maroon, narrowly linear, flattened, plane or slightly twisted, 1–2(–2.5) mm wide, smooth, margins pale, narrow, incrassate, smooth or papillate.
erect to ascending, 10–50 cm;
sheaths pinkish, rugulose, papillate, or scabrous to nearly smooth, soft;
blade dull green, linear, flattened, slightly to very twisted, 2.5–10 mm wide, smooth to papillate or scabrous, margins smooth to scabrous.
scape sheaths exceeded by leaves;
scapes linear, nearly terete, 0.7–1 mm wide, apically 2-ribbed, ribs smooth or papillate;
spikes mostly ovoid or ellipsoid, 6–15 mm, apex acute;
fertile bracts 5–6 mm, margins pale, strongly scarious, lacerate, often squarrose, submarginally often reddish, apex low-keeled.
scape sheaths exceeded by leaves;
scapes linear, terete, to 2.5 mm wide, smooth to minutely scabrous, 2–4-ribbed distally, ribs papillate to minutely scabrous;
spikes prevalently ovoid-ellipsoid, (7–)10–17(–20) mm;
fertile bracts 6–8 mm, margins entire, apex rounded.
lateral sepals included or slightly exsert, slightly curved, (5.5–)6–7 mm, keel concolorous, firm, finely lacerate or apically lacero-fimbriate, not papillate or ciliate;
petals unfolding in morning, blade obovate, 5 mm;
staminodes bearded.
lateral sepals included, slightly curved, 6–8 mm, keel scarious, lacerate to lacero-fimbriate;
petals unfolding midday or afternoon, blade broadly obovate to nearly orbiculate, 3–5 mm;
staminodes bearded.
translucent, ellipsoid, 0.5–0.6 mm, prominently longitudinally lined.
translucent, ellipsoid-cylindric, 0.6–1 mm, longitudinally multiribbed with fainter cross ribs.
= 189.
= 18.
Xyris elliottii
Xyris scabrifolia
Xyris elliottii with its densely cespitose habit, its glossy brown or red-brown, chaffy leaf sheath bases, and narrow leaves is a part of a complex including Xyris baldwiniana and X. isoetifolia. Usually it is readily distinguished by its taller habit, thicker scapes, and larger spikes, but particularly by its strongly contrasting pale, incrassate leaf blade borders. In peninsular Florida, however, this leaf border is not consistently present, particularly in the narrower-bladed populations (in these, leaf blades may be less than 1 mm wide). Such plants can be distinguished from X. baldwiniana by the staminodial brush, absent in X. baldwiniana, and from X. isoetifolia by the different spike shape, the ragged (rather than entire) bracts, and by a different seed sculpture. Hybrids between X. elliottii and X. brevifolia occur in southern Florida.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Although I have seen no records from South Carolina, Xyris scabrifolia is to be expected there.
Several examples of what Bridges and Orzell have named Xyris chapmanii, together with a series of my own of this morph, show such intergradation that it is impossible to break the two out even as varieties.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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