Read About the Amaryllis Family
AMARYLLIS FAMILY (Amaryllidaceae)
Yellow Star-grass
Hypoxis hirsuta (H. erecta)
Flowers--Bright yellow within, greenish and hairy outside, about
1/2 in. across, 6-parted; the perianth divisions spreading, narrowly oblong;
a few flowers at the summit of a rough, hairy scape 2 to 6 in. high.
Leaves: All from an egg-shaped corm; mostly longer than scapes, slender,
grass-like, more or less hairy.
Preferred Habitat--Dry, open woods, prairies, grassy waste places,
fields.
Flowering Season--May-October.
Distribution--From Maine far westward, and south to the Gulf of
Mexico.
Usually only one of these little blossoms in a cluster on each plant
opens at a time; but that one peers upward so brightly from among the grass
it cannot well be overlooked. Sitting in a meadow sprinkled over with these
yellow stars, we see coming to them many small bees--chiefly Halictus--to
gather pollen for their unhatched babies' bread. Of course they do not carry
all the pollen to their tunneled nurseries; some must often be rubbed off
on the sticky pistil tip in the centre of other stars. The stamens radiate,
that self-fertilization need not take place except as a last extremity.
Visitors failing, the little flower closes, bringing its pollen-laden
anthers in contact with its own stigma.
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