The Eyes Have It

 

A single inflorescence of Oxeye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare.
Yellow disc flowers are surrounded by white ray flowers. 
Rowan County, North Carolina.

Do you ever feel like you’re being watched?  Eyes may be upon you when you walk the woods or meadows.  Several plants in the Southeast got their names because they appear to have eyes.  

 

Blue-eyed Grass,  Sisyrinchium angustifolium flowers in the spring. 
Orange County, North Carolina.

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) is the first of the eye plants to flower in the spring.  Blue-eyed Grass is not really a grass but is in the Iris family.  It is a monocot and has flower parts in threes, which is characteristic of that group.  Blue-eyed Grass has three blue petals and three blue sepals.  These petals and sepals look the same so, since there is not enough terminology in botany, they are called tepals.  Blue-eyed Grass leaves are long and narrow so they look like leaves of grass.  Between the blue flowers and the grass-like leaves, the name Blue-eyed Grass was obvious. 

 Two plants with eyes in their names that often occur together in summer fields are Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).  Both these plants are in the Sunflower family, the Asteraceae.  

 

A group of Oxeye Daisies in a meadow.  Rowan County, North Carolina.

Despite looking All-American, Oxeye Daisy is native to Eurasia and came to our shores in the early 1900s.  It is now naturalized in the 49 continental states and most Canadian provinces.  Oxeye daisy  is a very successful plant and is considered an invasive species in some states. What appears to be a single flower is really a group of flowers, an inflorescence.   Oxeye Daisy inflorescences are made of two flower types.  The yellow eye in the middle is composed of dozens of disk flowers.  The disk flowers have greatly reduced petals but have pollen-producing anthers and the female carpel with its pollen collecting stigma. The outer rim of the inflorescence that looks like petals are really flowers, the ray flowers.  These flowers have carpels and five fused, white petals that stick out to the side. The ray flowers direct pollinators toward the central disk flowers.  

A single daisy disk flower.  It has five small yellow petals and a
two-lobed stigma above the petals.  The anthers are not visible 
in this picture.  Rowan County, North Carolina.  

Daisy ray flower with five white fused petals and
the stigma.  Rowan County, North Carolina.

This Oxeye Daisy has attracted a couple of predators.  On the right is a crab spider (family Thomisidae) 
and on the left is a ladybird beetle (family Coccinellidae).  Rowan County, North Carolina.

The original scientific name for Oxeye Daisy was Chrysanthemum leucanthemum bestowed by none other than Carl Linnaeus, the godfather of biological classification.  Linnaeus’s scientific name for Oxeye Daisy absolutely sings.  The genus and species names have the same number of syllables and they rhyme.  The original scientific name means “golden flower, white flower”.  Plant taxonomists revised the genus Chrysanthemum in the late 20^th century and renamed Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare.  Quite a come down to go from “golden flower, white flower” to “common white flower”. 

 

A stand of Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). 
Rowan County, North Carolina

Black-eyed Susan is native to North America and grows over most of the continent.  It has black disk flowers and bright yellow ray flowers.  Black-eyed Susan flowers attract many pollinating insects and birds eat the mature fruits.

 

A single inflorescence of Black-eyed Susan with black disk flowers 
and yellow ray flowers.  Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Perhaps the strangest plant that might watch you is Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda).  This member of the Buttercup family grows in the eastern United States and Canadian provinces.  In North Carolina, it is most often found in mountain forests.  Doll’s Eyes produce white flowers in the spring and during summer makes white fruits with a single black dot that gives the plant its name.  Another common name for this plant is White Baneberry.  That name is a warning since the fruits and other plant parts are poisonous.  When eaten by people, Doll's Eyes fruits depress cardiac function and may cause death.  The toxins do not affect birds that eat the fruits and disperse the seeds of this interesting plant. 

 

A Doll's Eye plant with white fruits. Watauga County, North Carolina.

A closeup view of Doll's Eye fruits.  The fruits are white and spherical
and each bears a black spot that gives them their doll eye appearance.
Watauga County, North Carolina.

Be careful while hiking, these plants may be watching you.  The beauty of these plants may be in the eye of the beholder.