Native Plant of the Week: Blue-eyed Grass

Family: Iridaceae

Name: Sisyrinchium angustifolium - Blue-eyed Grass

Bloom Time: May - June

Flower: Lavender-Blue

Soil Condition: Average-Moist

Light: Sun to Partial Shade

Height: 12-24"

Native Range: Central to Eastern United States including Long Island

Zone: 5 to 9

Blue-eyed Grass is not a grass at all but is a member of the Iris family. The grass like foliage looks great as an edging to a walkway. Great for naturalizing as it will self sow and spread by rhizomes to form a colony. It tolerates clay soil and bog situations. Deer resistant.

Maintenance: You may shear it after blooming to remove developing seed capsules.

Benefits: Attracts numerous types of pollinators including bumblebees, sweat bees, syrphid flies and butterflies. Songbirds eat the seeds.

Companion Plants: Aster laevis (Smooth Aster), Solidago odora (Sweet Goldenrod), Ruellia humilis (Wild Petunia)

Substitution Plant: Sisyrinchium atlanticum (Eastern Blue-eyed Grass)

Photo: Cathy DeWitt, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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References:

1. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/sisyrinchium-angustifolium/

2. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=sian3

3. https://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=6672

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