Blue eyes winking along the Little Miami River...

...but they're not mine, my eyes are green! These eyes are the tiny flowers of Blue-eyed Grass, a delicate flower in the iris family. The unassuming blossoms of Blue-eyed Grass often go unnoticed where it hides in wet prairies and sunny forest edges. "Sweet" best describes these soft blue blooms that nod on elegant long stems whenever a breeze catches them..

Blue-eyed Grass is a native perennial that hides along the Little Miami River on both sides of the bike trail. 

Even though Blue-eyed Grass is a member of the iris family, it's easy to understand why its common name marks it as grass. The leaves and stems are flat with parallel veining, just like blades of grass.

Although it has grass in its name, and its flat stems and leaves look like blades of grass, Blue-eyed Grass is actually a member of the iris family. 

What makes an iris an iris?
The parts on an iris always come in groups of three, so it's misleading when you first look at this flower. It appears to have six petals, but really it has three petals and three sepals that look just like the petals. (Usually sepals are green. They encase the flower when it's a bud. When petals and sepals look alike, they are called tepals. So our little flower has six tepals.) It also has three stamens, but with Blue-eyed Grass the yellow stamens in the center of the flower are close together and appear as one. (Botany in a Day, p 201, by Thomas J. Expel).

The delicate flower of Blue-eyed Grass nods in the gentle breezes of late spring.

Blue-eyed Grass closes up as the day progresses. I photographed these flowers in the early afternoon, and they were still going strong. In another couple of hours, the blooms would have closed.

Blue-eyed Grass

I love the poem "Blue-eyed Grass," by Mary Austin. It appears in her book, The Road to the Spring (collected poems), but a notation in the book said the poem was also published in St. Nicholas (a children's magazine) in the June 1904 issue, and it was slightly different. I found a bound collection of the 1904 issues of the magazine on Amazon and ordered it so I could see the differences. I always liked the poem in The Road to Spring, but after reading the version in St. Nicholas, I might like it more. You can decided which version you like better:

Blue-Eyed Grass                                              Blue-Eyed Grass 

BLUE-EYED grass in the meadow                           BLUE-EYED grass in the meadow
    And yarrow-blooms on the hill,                                 And yarrow-blooms on the hill,
Cattails that rustle and whisper,                                 Cattails that rustle and whisper,
    And winds that are never still;                                   And winds that are never still;

Blue-eyed grass in the meadow,                                Blue-eyed grass in the meadow,
    A linnet's nest near by,                                               And the laden bee's low hum,
Blackbirds caroling clearly                                        Milkweed that runs to be first in the field
    Somewhere between earth and sky;                          Before the butterflies come;

Blue-eyed grass in the meadow,                                Watersnakes making lacy rings
    And the laden bee's low hum,                                   Round a cardinal-flower's red spear,
Milkweeds all by the roadside,                                 And blue-eyed grass in the meadow
    To tell us summer is come.                                       To mark the noon of the year!

                          by Mary Austin                                                        by Mary Austin

St. Nicholas, June 1904, pg 703                                The Road to the Spring: Collected Poems
(A children's magazine)                                              of Mary Austin, pg 209

Hepatica, the spring mental health flower of the midwest!

Hanging on tightly to a steep southeastern slope that spills down to the Little Miami River, Sharp-lobed Hepatica blossoms smile up toward the sky, looking for the sun between broken shadows of leafless trees. The breeze is sharp, and the temperature is cool, but these brave little spring wildflowers don't care. They've been waiting all winter, simmering on the back burner, waiting to push forth.

Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba)

...when winter seems like she'll never loosen her grip, these smiling puffs of color let me know the gray will soon be gone and Mama Nature is ready to dance.

These photos go back to early spring--April 3, 2011. I found the plants along the protected hillsides at Fort Ancient. Hepatica is one of the earliest spring bloomers. It comes equipped with a special adaptation that gives it an edge on the spring ephemerals--pre-existing leaves! Hepatica leaves have been there all winter (so it's not a true ephemeral), having emerged last spring after the flowers fruited and the old leaves started to wither and die. Therefore, Hepatica is ready for action as soon as those first few breaths of warm spring air pass by and sunlight filters all the way down through the bare trees to the forest floor -- "action," of course, meaning the leaves are able start photosynthesis right away and manufacture carbohydrates to fuel growth. While some spring ephemerals are just starting to produce leaves, Hepatica is already in full bloom.

Hepatica is no doubt one of the spring "mental health" flowers of the midwest. After enduring nonstop gray days since early November, white, pink and purply-blue blossoms glow on the forest floor and let us know everything will soon be fine--and color will return!

...furry bracts (modified leaves that in this case look like sepals) open to reveal the restorative colors of spring. The colorful "petals" are actually sepals (another type of modified leaf), which I only know because I read it here on the Bedford Audubon Society's Hepatica page, which has a very nice description of the flower.

A Hepatica acutiloba blossom pushes aside the brown leaves of winter to escort spring through the door...

...if you're going to be out and about in the frigid spring weather, wear a wooly sweater!!

Actually, the furry little hairs really do provide insulation for the tender spring flowers...

...well, hello! What are you doing here?

As I was photographing the underside of the Hepatica's bracts, a fly lighted on the blossom and proceeded to dance all around the flower's anthers (which contain pollen). Since not a lot of bees are flying around in early spring, flies are often seen pollinating Hepatica, but Hepatica is capable of self-pollination, so it doesn't rely on insects to get the job done.

...thanks handsome little fly for making sure the spring cycle goes on.

Hepatica

John Burroughs (1837 – 1921)

When April's in her genial mood,


And leafy smells are in the wood,


In sunny nook, by bank or brook,


Behold this lovely sisterhood.

A spirit sleeping in the mould,


And tucked about by leafage old,


Opens an eye blue as the sky,


And trusting takes the sun or cold.

Before a leaf is on the tree,


Or booms the roving bumblebee,


She hears a voice, "Arise, rejoice!"


In furry vestments cometh she.

Before the oven-bird has sung,


Or thrush or chewink found a tongue,


She ventures out and looks about,


And once again the world is young.

Sometimes she stands in white array,


Sometimes as pink as dawning day,


Or every shade of azure made,


And oft with breath as sweet as May.

Sometimes she bideth all alone,


And lifts her face beside a stone,--


A child at play along the way,


When all her happy mates have flown.

Again in bands she beams around,


And brightens all the littered ground,


And holds the gaze in leafless ways--


A concert sweet without a sound.

Like robin's song or bluebird's wing,


Or throats that make the marshes ring,


Her beaming face and winsome grace


Are greetings from the heart of spring.

Note

I talk about Fort Ancient a lot on my blog because I live only 15 minutes away...and it's really cool. I should probably explain what it is every now and then. Fort Ancient is the largest and best preserved prehistoric Native American hilltop enclosure in the United States. For an earlier post with more information and a photo of one of the mounds, click here.