Xyris
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 Xyris complanata flower close-up
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Xyris is the botanical name of a genus of flowering plants in the Yellow-eyed-grass family. The genus counts over two hundred fifty species, with the center of distribution in the Guiana's.
The leaves are mostly distichous, linear, flat and thin or round with a conspicuous sheath at the base. They are arranged in a basal aggregation. The small, yellow flowers are dioecious, borne on a spherical or cylindrical spike or head (inflorescence). Each flower grows from the axil of a leathery bract. The fruit is a non-fleshy, dehiscent capsule. In Xyris complanata a single flower bud on the spike appears in the morning, and expands into a conspicuous flower during the afternoon hours.
The APG II system, of 2003, places the genus in family Xyridaceae, in to the order Poales in the clade commelinids, in the monocots.
[edit] References
- ^ Xyris. Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government.
