Chapman's Yellow Eyed Grass

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.

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, occasionally solitary, 2--10(--11) dm, base bulbous to nearly bulbous. Stems compact. Leaves 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. Inflorescences: 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. Flowers: 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. Seeds translucent, ellipsoid-cylindric, 0.6--1 mm, longitudinally multiribbed with fainter cross ribs. 2n = 18.

Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., Tex.

Flowering summer--fall.

Sandy peats of deep pineland bogs and seeps, bog edges; 0--200m.

Xyris chapmanii E. L. Bridges & Orzell

Xyris scabrifolia Harper, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 325. 1903
Solitary 'according to Harper ) ; leaves linear, 25-40 cm. long, 3-4 (-5 ) mm. broad, somewhat incrassate and obtuse at the apex, tuberculate-scabrid at margins, elsewhere transversely rugose; sheath occupying one fourth to one third the length of the leaf, scabrid, opaque, somewhat dilated at the base; peduncles 50-70 cm. tall, 1-1.75 mm. broad, terete or nearly so, bicostate above, transversely rugose, the peduncular sheath 10-15 cm. long, rusty or chestnutcolored and somewhat shining below; spike many-flowered, ellipsoid, 10-14 mm. long, about 7 mm. thick, the outer barren bracts broadly elliptic, 2.5-3 mm. long, rounded at the apex, the flowering bracts broadly obovate, about 7 mm. long, 5-6 mm. broad, entire, tawny or palechestnut-colored, somewhat shining, with a large ovate dorsal, area 2.5-3 mm long; lateral sepals narrowly lanceolate-linear, acute at the apex; keel narrow, serrulate or lacerate only above; seeds ellipsoid, about 0.5 mm. long.
Type locality: Open bog, near Woodbury, Meriwether County, Georgia. Distribution: Known only from the type locality.