Sisyrinchium montanum

Common Blue-eyed Grass

• Full sun
• Average to well drained soils
• 6" to 10” tall, 2” to 8” wide
• Early Summer Blooming
• Ontario Native, Dry meadow or other areas with limited competition 

These tiny plants, with their flat, grassy foliage are easy to miss when they aren’t in bloom and quite easy to spot, despite their small size, when in flower. Tiny, delicate appearing stars of purple-blue facing upward and stand out surprisingly well in dry meadows, along roadsides and in areas that are rebounding after disturbance. They thrive in sandy or gravely, well drained soils. So well that I’ve seen them growing in sufficient quantities along the gravely shoulders of Highway #7 a bit west of Perth that they can be spotted while driving by at 80+Kmhs.

Growing to only 6” to 8” in height and in clumps that are only a few inches wide, they have very little capacity to compete with the types of plants that thrive in rich soils and higher moisture settings. The evolutionary niche that these are adapted to is one where lack of soil fertility and/or available moisture, or occasional disturbance, keep competition to a minimum.

Sometimes short lived, they seed freely if allowed and will pop up in any gaps that open up in a hot, dry landscape.

Spotted Horsemint, Pearly Everlasting, Heath Aster and Prairie Smoke are a few other species that would tend to thrive alongside these little, jewel-toned gems.