Baldwin's Yellow Eyed Grass

The beardless staminodes and the long, translucent seeds distinguish Xyris baldwiniana. Its leaf blades vary from terete to flat, and in eastern Texas and North Carolina the flat-leaved ones have been mistaken for X. elliottii. This same problem exists in Floridian narrow-leaved X. elliottii, which bears a strong resemblance to X. baldwiniana but has bearded staminodes and larger spikes.

Herbs, perennial, densely cespitose, 15--40(--50) cm. Leaves erect or ascending, 10--30 cm; sheaths glossy light brown or red-brown, firm; blade green, linear to filiform, often angularly terete, or sulcate, rarely to 1mm wide. Inflorescences: scape sheaths exceeded by leaves; scapes linear, straight or flexuous, terete, 1 mm wide, rarely 1-ribbed; spikes ovoid to ellipsoid, 4--7 mm, apex acute; fertile bracts 4--5 mm, margins entire or erose, apex rounded. Flowers: lateral sepals included, reddish brown, slightly curved, less than 5 mm, keel scarious, lacerate from middle to tip; petals unfolding in morning, blade obovate, to 5 mm; staminodes beardless. Seeds translucent, fusiform to cylindric, (0.7--)0.8--1 mm, finely lined longitudinally. 2n = 18.

Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex.; Mexico (Chiapas); Central America (Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua).

Flowering late spring--fall.

Moist to wet sands, sandy peats of bogs, pine savanna, ditches and low cleared areas, coastal plain; 0--200m.

Xyris baldwiniana var. tenuifolia (Chapman) Malme; X. juncea Baldwin ex Elliott 1816, not R. Brown 1810; X. setacea Chapman

Xyris baldwiniana Schultes, in R. & S. Syst. eg. Mant. 1:
351. 1822.
■ a Baldwin: Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1: 53. 1816. Not X. juncea R. Br. 1810.
■ a Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. ed. 2. 658. 1883.
Perennial, tufted; leaves terete, filiform, 10-20 cm. long, 0.3-0.5 mm. thick, often twisted, smooth; sheath occupying about one sixth the length of the leaf, chestnut-colored and shining below, dilated at the base; peduncles 25-40 cm. tall, 0.7-1 mm. thick, terete, unicostate above, smooth, the peduncular sheath 7-10 cm. long, rusty and opaque below;, spike rather fewflowered, obovoid or ellipsoid, 4-6 mm. long, 3—4 mm. thick, the outer barren bracts ovate or elliptic, 2—3 mm. long, rounded at the apex, the flowering bracts ovate or elliptic, 4—5 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad, ecarinate, rounded and somewhat lacerate or entire at the apex, tawny or chestnut-colored, with a grayish-green ovate or elliptic dorsal area about 2 mm. long; lateral sepals included, lanceolate, 4-4.5 mm. long, about 0.75 mm. broad, acute; keel lacerate-serrate from the middle to the apex; seeds oblong-ellipsoid, 0.5-0.6 mm. long.
Type LOCALITY: Wet pine-barrens near St. Mary's. Georgia.
Distribution: North Carolina to Florida and Texas.

Xyris baldwiniana, common name Baldwin's yelloweyed grass, is a North American species of flowering plant in the yellow-eyed-grass family. It is native to southern Mexico (Chiapas), Central America (Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua), and the southeastern and south-central United States (from Texas to North Carolina).

Xyris baldwiniana is a perennial herb up to 50 cm (20 inches) tall with grass-like leaves and yellow flowers.