Blue Eyed Grass

Annual Blue-eyed Grass - Sisyrinchium rosulatum  

Flowers of various forms are prevalent this time of year.  Many are quite small, like this blue-eyed-grass, but still impressive if closely examined.  In the upland open fields, where the summer grasses are still coming out of dormancy and not yet choking everything else out by their profuse growth, one finds small spring weeds making a go of it in the patches of bare dirt left between old summer grass residue.   

  

In the bahiagrass pastures, just starting to emerge from dormancy we find large patches of the little blue flowers of the blue-eyed-grass, along with its bright red seed pods.

Up close the pale blue flowers with a dark purple edge around a bright yellow center are quite stunning.  As are the small red globes containing next years seeds.  

Additional sources of information:

            AlabamaPlants.com describes it as a fast growing annual.

            iNaturalist provides an abundance of additional pictures.

            Wildflowers of Florida and the Southeast by Hall and Weber (2011) describe the annual blue-eyed grass as a "herbaceous grass-like winter annual", commonly found from Florida to Texas and north to Arkansas and North Carolina.  And, that it is native to South America.  Like many of the plants prevalent in the area, they've been imported from other places and established themselves in this hospitable environment.