Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for Florida Yellow-eyed-grass - Xyris floridana (Kral) E.L. Bridges & Orzell

Section 5 » Order Commelinales » Family Xyridaceae

Author	(Kral) E.L. Bridges & Orzell
Distribution	Southern Coastal Plain only, ranging west only to Robeson County; not in the Sandhills. Coastal Plain, NC to southern FL and southeastern LA; Belize; Nicaragua.
Abundance	Rare. The NCNHP database has only 12 records, one of the scarcest Xyris species in the state. The website editors suggest a State Rank of S1S2 instead of S1. This is a State Special Concern species.
Habitat	Wet Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass savannas and flatwoods.
Phenology	Flowering and fruiting late July - early September.
Identification	Florida Yellow-eyed-grass is a medium-sized species, much like Bog Yellow-eyed-grass (X. difformis), but its scape is not flattened up towards the head. Scapes and leaves have minute bumps (papillae or tubercles) on ribs and margins (lacking in Bog Yellow-eyed-grass) and leaf bases are more prominently colored pink to maroon (green or pink in that species). Leaves do not form fan-like arrangements as in Curtiss's Yellow-eyed-grass (X. curtissii).
Taxonomic Comments	Formerly treated as a variety under X. difformis. NatureServe still has it as a variety -- X. difformis var. floridana. Members of Xyris are easy to identify to genus, but can be a challenge to identify species. Careful observation of a few features with a hand-lens is usually sufficient. Close attention must be paid to the flowering head, which is composed of overlapping brown scales. Immediately behind each scale are two brown "lateral sepals"; the margins of these may be feathery or irregularly lacerate (cut into narrow segments) or finely cut into short, comb-like prickles. Lateral sepals may be hidden or a bit longer than each scale. The flowers themselves are usually of little diagnostic value, other than time of flowering -- morning vs. afternoon. Seed size and ornamentation can also be useful characters, but require a dissecting scope to see well. Note also whether leaves and scapes (stems) are twisted and the color of the basal portion. All species have 2-ranked leaves, but in some species the leaves are arranged in a broad, fan-like shape. Finally, note the leaf and stem surface texture -- whether smooth of with little pale bumps. See Godfrey & Wooten (1979) for detailed descriptions and drawings.
Other Common Name(s)	None
State Rank	S1 [S1S2]
Global Rank	G5T4T5 [G4G5]
State Status	SC-V
US Status
USACE-agcp	OBL link
USACE-emp

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