Sisyrinchium funereum E. P. Bicknell

Sisyrinchium funereum is endemic to the Death Valley-Ash Meadows region.

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, green to ashy olive when dry, to 7.6 dm, strongly glaucous; roots somewhat fleshy-thickened. Stems branched, with 1 node, 1–4 mm wide, glabrous, margins white-cartilaginous; internode 16–65 cm, longer than leaves, with 2–3 branches. Leaf blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts. Inflorescences borne singly; spathes green, obviously wider than supporting branch, glabrous, keels entire; outer 13.5–24 mm, 3 mm shorter to 1 mm longer than inner, tapering evenly towards apex, margins basally connate 5–6.5 mm; inner with keel evenly curved to straight, hyaline margins 0.6–1.1 mm wide, apex extending as 2 broadly rounded and erose lobes, ending at or slightly beyond green apex. Flowers: tepals pale blue to light bluish violet, bases yellow; outer tepals 9–15 mm, apex truncate to occasionally rounded, aristate; filaments connate ± entirely, glabrous; ovary similar in color to foliage. Capsules beige, globose, 5–6 mm; pedicel erect to ascending. Seeds globose to obconic, lacking obvious depression, 1.1–1.5 mm, slightly granular. 2n = 32.

Calif., Nev.

Flowering early spring.

Moist, grassy areas along streams and springs where soil strongly alkaline; of conservation concern; 0--800m.

Sisyrinchium funereum is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae known by the common names Funeral Mountain blue-eyed grass and Death Valley blue-eyed-grass. It is endemic to the Mojave Desert of the United States, where it is known only from the Funeral Mountains and Death Valley area in eastern California, and the Ash Meadows area just over the border in Nevada. It grows in wet, highly alkaline habitat, such as seeps and mineral springs.