Mountain Blue-eyed

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Mountain blue-eyed (Latin Sisyrinchium montanum) - a herbaceous plant with a strict appearance of the genus Blue-eyed (Latin Sisyrinchium), ranked in the Iris family (Latin Iridaceae). This species is very similar to the Sisyrinchium angustifolium (Latin Sisyrinchium angustifolium), so sometimes these two species are combined. The plant is perennial, rhizomatous, with narrow leaves and bluish-purple flowers with a yellow base. This species has varieties with a different color of flowers, although some botanists question this view, referring the differences to the division of the species by varieties.

What's in your name

The Latin name of the genus "Sisyrinchium", according to a later version of botanists, is based on the word "sisyra". This was the name of the marching raincoat in epic times, which the craftswomen made of goat hair. The cloak was shaggy and warm, protecting the traveler from bad weather during the day, and at night it served him as a bed, saving the bare earth from the cold and serving at the same time as a warm blanket. Its shaggy appearance is associated with the appearance of the rhizomes and corms of the genus, and therefore was the basis for the Latin name of the genus of plants.

The English-language "Blue-eyed" and Russian "Goluboglazka" names of the genus were based not on the underground parts of plants, but on miniature graceful flowers with blue-blue petals. Despite the fact that among the plants of the genus there are species, for example, with yellow flowers, such names have taken root and have a right to exist. Although some of the names are surprising with the combination of very incompatible words, as is the case with the plant "Golden blue-eyed-grass" - "Golden blue-eyed grass."

The specific epithet "montanum" ("mountain") characterizes the nature of the area where this species grows.

The name of the plant has popular synonyms, for example, "Strict blue-eyed-grass"; American blue-eyed-grass.

Description

Perennial herbaceous plants with a pale green to olive green appearance, which when dry turn from dark brown to bronze. The rhizomes of plants are barely distinguishable.

Simple bare stems ranging in height from 10 to 20 centimeters in particularly favorable conditions can grow up to half a meter.

Green, narrow, pointed-nosed leaves form a basal rosette. The leaf plates are bare.

Dark bluish-purple flowers cover the bushes abundantly in May-June. The base of the flower is yellow-orange with protruding yellow stamens. The edge of the flower petals is notched with one coquettish spine in the middle. The surface of the petal is divided into lanceolate-oval lobes by dark purple veins. Although the size of the flowers is small and they live only one day, the flowers are very graceful and showy. Flowers can be single, or up to six pieces together, forming a delicate creation of nature.

The fruit is capsule capsules from light to dark brown color, sometimes with a purple tint. Small dark globular seeds are located inside the fruit.

In some places, Mountain Blue-eyed is ranked among the category of weeds. This does not prevent the plant from being used by people as an elegant spring garden decoration. For example, in Russia, Mountain Blue-Eye has been cultivated for more than two centuries.

Born in the rocky mountains of North America, Mountain Blue-Eyed made her way to Western Europe; to Russia, where she chose the European part of the country and the land of Transbaikalia; and even to distant, isolated from other continents, Australia.

Growing conditions

Mountain blue-eyed is a very unpretentious plant, but loves places open to the sun.

It grows in any soil that provides good drainage, since it does not like stagnant water.

The plant is frost-resistant, does not need shelter for the winter period.

In the photo, one of the hybrids of the Mountain Blue Eyes: