| Section 5 » Order Commelinales » Family Xyridaceae |
Show/Hide Synonym
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| Xyris scabrifolia | < | Xyris scabrifolia | Flora of North America (1993b, 1997, 2000, 2002a, 2002b, 2003a, 2004b, 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2007a, 2009, 2010) | | | Xyris scabrifolia | < | Xyris scabrifolia | Kartesz (1999) | | | Xyris scabrifolia | < | Xyris scabrifolia | Kral in Kubitzki (1998b). Key adapted from X, GW, and Z. | (also see X. chapmanii) | | Source: Weakley's Flora |
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| Author | R.M. Harper | |
| Distribution | Mostly in the Sandhills; disjunct to several locations in Onslow and Pender counties. First discovered in NC during the Fort Bragg inventory in 1992.
Coastal Plain, NC to northwestern FL and southern MS; disjunct to western LA and eastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Rare to infrequent in the Sandhills, but very rare near the southern coast. The NCNHP database lists 43 records, essentially all extant. Even so, it is a State Special Concern species. | |
| Habitat | Blackwater streamhead ecotones and Sandhills seeps; ecotones between wet pine savannas and pocosins of the outer Coastal Plain. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late July-September. | |
| Identification | Harper's Yellow-eyed-grass is most readily noticed by its scape and leaves, which are decidedly gray-green in color, due to abundant little translucent bumps (spicules or tubercles). Leaves are rosy pink to pale maroon basally, versus darker maroon in Chapman's Yellow-eyed-grass (X. chapmanii); and the reddish color does not extend as far up the leaves as in Chapman's. Chapman's Yellow-eyed-grass also inhabits the wettest end of the streamhead habitat spectrum, its feet typically in wet muck. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Taxon editors consider this species to be amply distinct from Chapman's Yellow-eyed-grass, contrary to FNA.
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 | S2S3 | |
| Global Rank | G3 | |
| State Status | SC-V | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | OBL link |
