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iNat·78257SpeciesPlantae6,579 field observations
  1. Plants
  2. ›Vascular Plants
  3. ›flowering plants
  4. ›monocots
  5. ›Agaves, Orchids, Irises, and Allies
  6. ›iris family
  7. ›Iridoideae
  8. ›Sisyrinchieae
  9. ›Olsynium
grasswidow
Plate 1 of 7. (c) sentraevant, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by sentraevant · via iNaturalist

grasswidow

Olsynium douglasii

Olsynium douglasii is a species of flowering plant in the iris family (Iridaceae). Common names include Douglas' olsynium, Douglas' grasswidow, grass-widow, blue-eyed grass, purple-eyed-grass, and satin flower, It is the only species in the genus Olsynium in North America, the remaining 11 species being from South America. It was formerly treated in the related genus Sisyrinchium. Despite the common names, it is not a true grass (Poaceae).

It is a bulb forming herbaceous perennial, growing 10–40 cm (3.9–15.7 in) tall. The leaves are slender, linear, 10–30 cm (3+7⁄8–11+3⁄4 in) long and 1.5–3 mm broad, usually with pale longitudinal stripes. The showy flowers appear in early spring and are bell-shaped to star-shaped, 15–25 mm long, with six purple tepals (sometimes pale or white). The anthers are dark yellow to orange and the filaments bearing them are fused only on the lower part.

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Olsynium douglasii in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 78257.