Blue-eyed grass

Click for greater clarity.

Welcome to something you haven’t seen here before: blue-eyed grass. It’s not a grass at all but a small wildflower in the genus Sisyrinchium. There are various species of blue-eyed grass, and they’re hard to tell apart, so I can’t say which of the seven that have been reported in Travis County this one is. What I can say is that here’s yet another wildflower with blue in its name that looks violet to me.

Date: March 29, 2013.  Location: the Mueller Greenway in east-central Austin.  I found this clump of flowering plants, at most 6 inches tall, growing right by the edge of a sidewalk.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman