Common Name:
MOUNTAIN BLUE-EYED-GRASS
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Coefficient of Conservatism:
4
Coefficient of Wetness:
0
Wetness Index:
FAC
Physiognomy:
Nt P-Forb
C. Peirce
Moist open, often grassy places; sandy, gravelly shores (or in rock crevices); mixed forests, especially in disturbed areas and clearings; old railroad beds, banks of ditches, and roadsides through wet ground.
This is a lighter green plant than S. mucronatum, with a more glaucous aspect; the margins of stems and leaves are usually minutely denticulate. The outer spathe bract margins are fused basally up to about 4 or 5 mm. The commoner plant in Michigan is var. crebrum Fernald. It has deep green foliage, which dries rather dark, and green or purple tinged capsules, dark when ripe. Variety montanum occurs less commonly in Michigan, but has been collected essentially throughout the state. It is a paler plant, with capsules a pale straw-color even when ripe. The spathes of var. crebrum are often strongly tinged with purple.
Rare plants with peduncled spathes would key to S. angustifolium, from which they differ in generally narrower stems, failure to darken dramatically in drying, and purple tinge of spathes and capsules. They differ from S. strictum in often slightly wider stem, leaf-like outer bract of spathe, and absence of wing-margin on pedicels.