Tiny Star
2 Bracts
Tiny Star
Bud Opening
| Tiny Star 2 Bracts | | Tiny Star Bud Opening | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Asparagus (Asparagales) | ||||
| Family: | Hypoxis (Hypoxidaceae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Tiny Star (Pauridia glabella var glabella) | ||||
| This Photo: | Leaves, Flower & Fruit | ||||
| Synonym: | Hypoxis glabella var glabella | ||||
| Other name: | Star Grass | ||||
Thank you Geoffrey Cox for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Flinders Ranges and elsewhere Flowers ~8mm to ~14mm wide. Leaves ~1mm wide. While it looks like the flowers have 6 petals, they are 3 petals and 3 sepals. Notice in the photo, of a patch of 11 flowering plants, the massive size difference between them in one location. There is a very similar one that is generally larger, Yellow Star (Pauridia vaginata). The differences are difficult to spot in photographs unless they are targetted with a macro lens. P. vaginata has flowers 15-25 mm wide, leaves 1-3.5 mm wide. As you can see, sizes almost meet so can't be used to distinguish in all cases; ie a large Tiny Star is close to the same size as a small Yellow Star. A more reliable diagnostic (remember, plants can get eaten so a missing bract isn't definitive) are the bract counts. Geoff said "P. vaginata has one bract part way up the stem". Pauridia glabella has 2 bracts at the base of the flower stem, as shown here. However, these bracts are not always visible, and so small they are very difficult to photograph. | |||||
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