Small's Yelloweyed Grass

Although no specimens were seen for Virginia, Xyris smalliana is to be expected there.

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, 50--150 cm. Stems compact. Leaves ascending in narrow fans, (19--)30--50(--60) cm; sheaths pinkish or pale red, soft, smooth; blade pale green proximally, distally deep lustrous green, linear, flattened, plane, 5--15 mm wide, margins smooth. Inflorescences: scape sheaths exceeded by leaves; scapes linear, straight, distally slightly compressed, 1--2 mm wide, smooth, 2-ribbed; spikes ovoid to ellipsoid or cylindric, 10--20(--25) mm, apex usually blunt; fertile bracts 5--8 mm, margins entire, apex rounded. Flowers: lateral sepals slightly to conspicuously exserted, slightly curved, 6--8 mm, keel scarious, apex not red, broad, thin, lacerate; petals unfolding in afternoon, blade obovate, 5--6 mm; staminodes bearded. Seeds translucent, narrowly ellipsoid to ovoid, (0.6--)0.7(--0.8 mm), irregularly ridged and cross-ridged. 2n = 18.

Ala., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., S.C., Tex.; West Indies (Cuba); Mexico (Tabasco); West Indies (Cuba); Central America (Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua).

Flowering summer--fall.

Sandy or peaty shallows and shores of ponds and sluggish acidic streams; 0--100m.

Xyris caroliniana Walter var. olneyi A. W. Wood; X. congdonii Small; X. smalliana Nash var. congdonii (Small) Malme; X. smalliana var. olneyi (A. W. Wood) Gleason ex Malme

Xyris smalliana Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 159. 1895
Tufted; leaves linear, 25-60 cm. long, 3-6 mm. broad, somewhat obtuse at the apex, smooth, somewhat shining especially beneath; sheath occupying about one half the length of the leaf, somewhat dilated, often violaceous and shining below; peduncles 50-100 cm. tall, about 2 mm. broad, somewhat compressed, bicostate especially above, smooth, the peduncular sheath nearly equaling the leaves, pale-rusty and shining below; spike ovoid or ellipsoid, 1220 (-22) mm. long, 6-9 mm. thick, the outer barren bracts elliptic, about 3 mm. long, obtuse or rounded at the apex, the flowering bracts elliptic, about 7 mm. long and 4 mm. broad, nearly entire, tawny or pale-rusty, somewhat shining, with a grayish-green ovate or elliptic dorsal area 2.5-3 mm. long; lateral sepals linear-lanceolate, 7-8 mm. long, 0.8-1 mm. broad, obtuse at the apex; keel very narrow and entire below, somewhat broader and lacerate or laceratefimbriate from the middle to the apex; seeds ellipsoid, about 0.5 mm. long. Type locality: Shallow water, Lake Ella, Lake County, Florida.
DISTRIBUTION: Georgia and Florida to Louisiana.
Xyris Smalliana var. Olneyi (Wood) Gleason. Xvris caroliuiana var. Olneyi Wood, Class-Book ed. 2. 564. 1847. Xyris Congdoni Small; Britton, Man. ed. 2. 1057. 1905. Xyris Smalliana var. Congdoni Malme, Bull. Torrey Club 64: 45. 1937. Somewhal lower (peduncle 45 75 cm. tall;;
keel of the lateral sepals thicker and less obviously lacerate fimbriate; seeds about 0.6 mm. long.

Xyris smalliana, Small's yelloweyed grass, is a North American species of flowering plants in the yellow-eyed-grass family. It grows on the coastal plain of the eastern and southern United States from Maine to Texas, as well as in Cuba, Central America, and the State of Tabasco in southern Mexico.

Xyris smalliana is a perennial herb with a stem up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall with long, narrow leaves up to 20 cm (8 inches) long.

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