Sisyrinchium idahoense var. occidentale

Idaho blue eyed grass

Family: Iridaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Idaho blue eyed grass is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sierra Nevada in open, moist, grassy places at elevations of 100 to 2,850 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces blue to purple flowers in small clusters with outer perianth parts 8 to 13 millimeters long. Growing with slender stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms delicate clumps with distinctively fan-like leaves. Its leaves are narrow and grass-like, emerging in a flat plane from the base of the plant. The flower bracts have margins fused in their lower 3 to 6 millimeters, giving the plant a distinctive structural detail.

Habitat: Open, moist, grassy places

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 100-2850 m

Bioregions: SN, SNE

California counties: Mono, Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Nevada, Inyo, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Tehama, El Dorado, Santa Barbara, Alpine, Plumas

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