Sisyrinchium bermudiana

Sisyrinchium bermudiana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Iridaceae
Genus:	Sisyrinchium
Species:	S. bermudiana
Binomial name
Sisyrinchium bermudiana L., nom. cons.[1]
Synonyms[1]
Moraea bermudiana (L.) Thunb. Marica bermudiana (L.) Ker Gawl. Bermudiana bermudiana (L.) Kuntze, nom. inval.

Sisyrinchium bermudiana, known as Bermudiana or, along with other members of the genus, as blue-eyed-grass,^[2] is a flower of the Sisyrinchium genus (of the iris family), that is indigenous to the Atlantic archipelago, and British Overseas Territory, of Bermuda. The plant appears and blooms in the spring. It has been used as a totemic flower by Bermudians, and appears in art, jewellery, banknotes and elsewhere.^[3] Long believed to be limited to Bermuda, the plant has also been found around Lough Erne and Lough Melvin in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, where it is known as feilistrín gorm, or blue-eyed grass.

Taxonomy

Sisyrinchium bermudiana was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.^[4] The first described species in the genus Sisyrinchium, it is thus the type species. Linnaeus's specific epithet bermudiana was not an adjective (and thus does not have to agree in gender with Sisyrinchium) but a noun in apposition, derived from the earlier genus name Bermudiana.^[5] He showed this by capitalizing the epithet, but modern practice is to use lower-case for all epithets.

References