Sisyrinchium

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

  • Family

    Iridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Sisyrinchium

  • Description

    Species Description - Perennial mostly tufted slender herbs with fibrous roots from contracted rootstocks, simple or branched 2-winged or 2-edged stems, and linear grass-like leaves. Flowers from terminal spathes consisting of mostly one pair of opposite eonduplicate herbaceous bracts enclosing membranous scales; perianth blue, violet or white with a yellow eye, rarely all yellow, the 6 oblong or obovate segments spreading and aristulate; filaments monadelphous; anthers linear or oblong, the saes distinct at base; style threadform, the branches filiform or obsolete; ovary 3-celled; capsule globose, oval or obovoid, usually trigonous, loculicidally 3-valved; seeds globose to obovoid, often angled, pitted or smooth. Flowers fugacious, opening successively in sunlight, each usually lasting but a day. Probably not fewer than 125 species, nearly all American. Type species: Sisyrinchium Bermudiana L.