Sisyrinchium elmeri

Elmer's blue-eyed-grass, Elmer's Blue-Eyed-Grass

Family: Iridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Elmer's blue-eyed-grass is a California native perennial found in southern Klamath Ranges, southern California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and San Bernardino Mountains in wet meadows at elevations of 350 to 2,700 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces deep- to orange-yellow flowers with dark brown veins, creating delicate clusters with translucent bract margins. Growing in tufted clusters less than 25 centimeters tall with medium green stems that dry to an olive-green color, it forms dense, compact groupings. Its leaves are minimal, with no leaf-bearing nodes visible on the slender stems less than 2 millimeters wide. The flower bracts feature distinctive translucent margins that extend beyond the tip with two rounded or dissected teeth, giving the plant a unique structural appearance.

Habitat: Wet meadows

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 350-2700 m

Bioregions: s KR, s CaRH, SN, SnBr.

California counties: Mariposa, Tuolumne, Trinity, Fresno, Siskiyou, Plumas, Tulare, Placer, Kern, Butte, Tehama, Yuba, Madera

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.