Family: Iridaceae,
Iris
Genus: Sisyrinchium
Description
General: tufted perennial with 1 to several stems, these
15-35 cm tall, stiff, flattened and winged, 3-4 mm broad,
mostly broader than the leaves, simple, leafless, from
short rhizomes and fibrous roots.
 Leaves: basal, linear, grass-like, mostly 2-3 mm broad,
shorter than the stems. The 2 leaf-like bracts below the
flowers very unequal, the outer one usually exceeding all
the flowers and about twice as long as the shorter one.
 Flowers: usually 2-5 in an umbel-cluster, the flower
stalks slender, hairless to glandular-short-hairy. The 6
tepals 6-12 mm long, hairless to slightly glandular-short-
hairy on the outer surface, blue to bluish-purple, often with
a yellow eye, oblong to oblong-obovate, abruptly bristle-
tipped. Filaments joined to near the tip, the anthers yellow,
1-1.5 mm long. Ovary stalked-short-hairy.
Flowering time: May-July.
 Fruits: capsules, hairless or sparsely glandular-short-
hairy, round to obovoid, 3-6 mm long. Seeds 2 to several
per cell, blackish, 1-1.5 mm long, smooth to finely pitted.
Distribution
Marshland and ditches, always where moist in the spring
at least, plains to subalpine, in w., c. and n.e parts of MT.
Also from s. AK to Baja CA, e. across Canada and to the
e. side of the Rocky Mts. in WY, CO and NM.
 Edible and Medicinal plant, see below.
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