Carolina Yelloweyed Grass

In Florida and the lower Gulf Coastal Plain west to Mississippi are paler-leaved, white-petaled examples that have been treated as Xyris flexuosa var. pallescens (C. Mohr) Barnhart. These indeed are always in uniform populations but differ in no other significant way from the species. Since from typical plants. Because some other Xyris have white-flowered morphs (particularly X. platylepis), these are regarded as too close to be distinguished as varieties. Populational studies are in order, however.

Herbs, perennial, usually cespitose, 30--80(--100) cm, base deeply set. Stems compact. Leaves erect or ascending, 20--50 cm; sheath base chestnut brown; blade green, narrowly linear, twisted, 2--5 mm wide, compressed but fleshy, margins minutely tuberculate. Inflorescences: scape sheaths much exceeded by leaves; scapes linear, wiry, flexuous, nearly terete, 1.2--1.5 mm wide, distally 1-ribbed, rib smooth or somewhat scabrous; spikes ellipsoid to lanceoloid or cylindric, 10--30 mm, apex acute; fertile bracts 5--10(--13) mm, margins entire or erose, apex rounded. Flowers: lateral sepals conspicuously exserted, tan to reddish brown, nearly straight, 13--15 mm (including long hairs), keel firm, apex long-fimbriate, fimbriae red; petals unfolding in afternoon, blade obovate, 8--10 mm; staminodes bearded. Seeds translucent, cylindro-fusiform, 0.8--1 mm, with flat, longitudinal ribs. 2n = 18.

Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.J., N.C., S.C., Tex., Va.; West Indies (Cuba).

Flowering summer--fall.

Moist sands of pine savannas, bog edges, upper shores, flatwoods, sandy coastal dune swales, coastal plain; 0--300m.

Xyris arenicola Small 1903, not Miquel 1844; X. conocephala Wright; X. flexuosa Muhlenberg ex Elliott; X. flexuosa var. pallescens (Mohr) Barnhart; X. pallescens Small; X. torta Kunth 1843, not Smith 1818; X. torta var. pallescens C. Mohr

Xyris flexuosa Muhl. Cat. 5, hyponym. 1813; Ell. Bot. S. C. &Ga
1:51. 1816.
Xyris tort a Kunth, Ivmmi. PI. 4: 14. 1843. Nol X. torta Smith. 1818. Xyris caroliniana var. scabra Engelm. Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. 5: 233. I
Xyris scabra Engelra. Bost. Jour. Nat. I list . 5. 233, as synonym. 1845. Not X". . abra I< Br. 1810. Xyris conocephala Wright; Sauv. Anal. Acad. Ci. Habana 7: 610. 1871. yrii arenicola Small. Fl. SE. U. S. 234. 1903. Not X. arenicola Miq. 1844.
Roots rather thick, spongy; leaves 20-40 (—50) em. long, 1-2 (—3) mm. broad, rather thick, usually twisted, rather obtuse, mainly scabrid on the margins, elsewhere smooth; sheath chestnut-colored or brown and shining below; peduncles 40-80 (-90) cm. tall, 1-2 mm. broad, slightly compressed, scabrid on the ridges, elsewhere smooth, the peduncular sheath 9-12 cm. long; spike 10-15 (-20) mm. long, 5-7 mm. thick, the outer barren bracts about 3 mm. long, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, obtuse, the flowering bracts obovate-elliptic, 7-8 mm. long, about 5 mm. broad, coriaceous, entire, straw-colored, tawny or pale-rusty, somewhat shining, with a grayish-green or dull-purple ovate or elliptic dorsal area 2-3 mm. long; lateral sepals linear or nearly so, about 8 mm. long and 0.6 mm. broad; keel narrow, entire below, lacerate-fimbriate or rusty-bearded from near the middle to the apex; corolla yellow or white, the lobes obovate; seeds oblong-fusiform, about 1 mm. long.
Tvpe locality: Georgia or South Carolina.
Distribution: Pinelands, mostly near the coast, New Jersey to Florida, Texas, and Arkansas western Cuba (Pinar del Rio).

Xyris caroliniana Walt. Fl. Car. 69. 1788
Xyris anceps Pits. Syn. PI. 1: 56. L80S
Xyris canadensis Schnizl. Ic. pi. 47, f. I. 1845.
Xyris caroliniana f. phyllolepis Fernald, Rhodora 36: 194. 1934.
Tufted, rarely annual; leaves linear-lanceolate, 8-25 (-40) cm. long, usually 2-4 mm. broad , broadest at the middle, acute or somewhat obtuse at the apex, smooth ; sheath occupying about one third the length of the leaf, straw-colored or tawny, opaque, somewhat dilated at the base; peduncles 20-40 (-50) cm. tall, 1-2 mm. broad, somewhat compressed above, bicostati , smooth, the peduncular sheath 4-10 (-12) cm. Ions, pale-tawny or rusty and somewhat shining below; spike somewhat many-flowered or rather few-flowered, ellipsoid or obovoid, usually 7-10 | 12) mm. long, 5-8 mm. thick, rounded at the apex, the outer barren bracts ovate or elliptic, 3-4 mm. long, rounded at the apex or nearly so, the flowering bracts broadly obovate, usually 5-6 mm. long, 3.5-4.5 mm. broad, minutely lacerate or nearly entire, tawny or rusty, somewhat shining, with a green or grayish-green ovate or elliptic dorsal area 2-2.5 mm. long; lateral sepals narrowly spatulate-lanceolate, 4.5-5 mm. long, 0.75-1 mm. broad, somewhat obtuse at the apex; keel very narrow and entire below, somewhat broader and lacerate or laceratefimbriate in the upper half; seeds ellipsoid, 0.4-0.5 mm. long. Wry variable in size.
Type locality: South Carolina.
Distribution: Nova Scotia to Ontario and Michigan, and southward to Florida and Louisiana.

Xyris caroliniana, the Carolina yelloweyed grass, is a North American species of flowering plant in the yellow-eyed-grass family. It is native to Cuba and to the coastal plain of the southern and eastern United States from eastern Texas to New Jersey.

Xyris caroliniana is a perennial herb up to 100 cm (40 inches) tall with narrow leaves up to 50 cm (20 inches) long, and yellow flowers.