Sisyrinchium micranthum

Family

Iridaceae

Botanical Name

Sisyrinchium micranthum Cav.

Cavanilles, A.J. (1788) Monadelphiae Classis Dissertationes Decem. 6: 345, t. 191, fig. 2. Type: ?.

Common name

Annual blue-eyed grass

Weed

*

Stem

Annual tufted herb, 10-20 cm tall. Stems flattened and 2-angled.

Leaves

Leaves distichous, equitant; lamina flat and shorter than the stems, less than 1.5 cm broad, narrowly acute.

Flowers

Scape winged, flattened. Spathaceous bracts 12-30 mm long, acute; pedicels filiform, 5-15 mm long, exserted beyond bracts. Pedicels slender; Perianth yellow with reddish-brown markings, 7 mm long; lobes acute, ca. apiculate.

Fruit

Capsule nodding, depressed-globose, reddish, 2-3 mm long. Seed pyriform, ca. 0.5 mm diam., pitted and black.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NEQ, CQ and NSW. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 500 m. Grows in disturbed sites in forest. Also occurs in most temperate to subtropical countries around the world.

Natural History

A weed of disturbed places in high rainfall areas (Bentham 1873, Green 1994).

Poisonous to stock, causing violent scouring (Webb 1948).

NEQ

X

Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)

X

RFK Code

4230