Olsynium douglasii
species of plant
Olsynium douglasii is a species of flowering plant in the iris family (Iridaceae). Common names include Douglas' olsynium, Douglas' grasswidow, grass-widow, blue-eyed grass, purple-eyed-grass, and satin flower, It is the only species in the genus Olsynium in North America, the remaining 11 species being from South America. It was formerly treated in the related genus Sisyrinchium. Despite the common names, it is not a true grass (Poaceae).
It is a bulb forming herbaceous perennial, growing 10–40 cm (3.9–15.7 in) tall. The leaves are slender, linear, 10–30 cm (3+7⁄8–11+3⁄4 in) long and 1.5–3 mm broad, usually with pale longitudinal stripes. The showy flowers appear in early spring and are bell-shaped to star-shaped, 15–25 mm long, with six purple tepals (sometimes pale or white). The anthers are dark yellow to orange and the filaments bearing them are fused only on the lower part.
It is native to western North America, from southern British Columbia south to northern California, and east to northwest Utah. It grows in open areas usually in full sun.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15296159. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Olsynium douglasii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.