Tall Yellow Eyed Grass

Xyris platylepis, which may be associated with other bulbous-based species such as X. torta and X. caroliniana, appears very similar to larger extremes of the former but differs in its plane (rather than prominently ribbed) leaf surfaces and its lacerate (rather than ciliate) sepal keels, and from the latter in its more shallowly set and pinkish or red (rather than chestnut brown) bases, as well as in its sepal keels that are lacerate rather than fimbriate.

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, occasionally solitary, 2--8(--10) cm, base bulbous. Stems compact. Leaves erect or ascending, 15--30(--50) cm; sheaths pinkish to red, soft; blade green, linear, flattened, twisted, 5--10 mm wide, smooth, margins smooth. Inflorescences: scape sheaths exceeded by leaves; scapes linear, often flexuous, terete, to (1.5--)2(--3) mm wide, distally 2--4(--6) ribbed, ribs smooth or papillate; spikes ovoid to cylindric, 8--30 mm; fertile bracts 5--7 mm, margins entire, apex rounded. Flowers: lateral sepals included, light brown, slightly curved, 5--7 mm, keel scarious, lacerate; petals, unfolding at midday, blade broadly obovate, 5 mm; staminodes bearded. Seeds translucent, ellipsoid, 0.5--0.6 mm, longitudinally irregularly ribbed, with fainter cross lines. 2n = 18.

Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex., Va.

Flowering summer--fall (all year south).

Moist to wet acid, sandy seeps, bogs, low pine flatwoods, savannas, and ditch banks; 0--300m.

Xyris platylepis Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. 501. 1860
Tall, somewhat bulbous; leaves linear, 25-50 cm. long, 5-8 (-10) mm. broad, somewhat obtuse at the apex, smooth; sheath occupying one third to one half the length of the leaf, tawny or violaceous, opaque, much dilated at the base; peduncles 50-90 cm. tall, 1.5-2 mm. broad, bicostate or indistinctly multicostate above, many-striate beneath, often scabrid on the ridges, elsewhere smooth, the peduncular sheath 10-15 cm. long, rusty and shining below; spike many-flowered, ellipsoid or oblong, 12-25 mm. long, 8-10 mm. thick, the outer barren bracts ovate-orbicular, 2-3 mm. long, the flowering bracts obovate-orbicular, 6-7 mm. long and broad, rounded-truncate, entire at the apex, pale-tawny or rusty, with a usually transversely elliptic or orbicular dorsal area 1.5-2 mm. long and 2-3 mm. broad; lateral sepals linearlanceolate, about 5 mm. long, 0.5-1 mm. broad, acute at the apex or nearly so; keel narrow and entire below, somewhat broader and lacerate or shortly lacerate-fimbriate from the middle to the apex; seeds ellipsoid, about 0.5 mm. long.
Type locality: Low sandy places. Florida. Distribution: Virginia to Florida and Louisiana.

Xyris platylepis, the tall yelloweyed grass, is a North American species of flowering plants in the yellow-eyed-grass family. It grows on the coastal plain of the southeastern and south-central United States from eastern Texas to Virginia.

Xyris platylepis is a perennial herb up to 10 cm (4 inches) tall with long, narrow leaves up to 50 cm (20 inches) long.