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 tunnelled 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.