Tag: blue-eyed grass

Blue-eyed grass, a native gem

It’s California Native Plant Week and I’m profiling a different California native each day that is on my particular wish list.  Today is a favorite, Blue-eyed grass.  

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum
Western Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum

“Out of the clover & blue-eyed grass
He turned them into the river-lane;
One after another he let them pass,
Then fastened the meadow-bars again.”

Driving Home the Cows
by Kate Putnam Osgood,
b. 1860

Blue Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum

Blue Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum is a primitive iris

Blue-eyed grass or Western blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum, is native to California and other areas west of the Sierra Nevada. A perennial meadow wildflower related to the iris family, it hides among the other grasses until the clear blue flowers appear in April or May.…