About Nemastylis tenuis (Herb.) Benth. & Hook.f. ex S.Watson
Nemastylis tenuis (Herb.) Benth. & Hook.f. ex S.Watson is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows from a bulb with a dry, papery outer covering. Its stems are typically unbranched, but may branch once. Stems carry one leaf, with additional leaves growing at the base of the plant; all leaves are very slender and pleated. Inflorescences usually hold just a single flower, though they may contain a few flowers, and are subtended by a pair of bracts that wrap around the base of the inflorescence. The outer bract grows up to 2.5 cm (around 1 inch) long, while the inner bract can reach 4 cm (1½ inch) long. Flowers are star-shaped with actinomorphic symmetry, and have six narrow blue to white tepals that grow up to 3 cm (around 1⅕ inch) long and 9 mm (around ⅓ inch) wide. Stamens are made up of pollen-producing anthers borne on filaments up to 4.5 mm (3⁄16 inch) long; the filaments are joined at their base to form a "staminal column". The style is usually shorter than the staminal column, and bears slender arms up to 3.5 mm (around ⅛ inch) long. Its fruits are oblong capsules, growing up to 25 mm (around 1 inch) long, which open at their tips to release yellow to dark brown, angular seeds that are up to 2 mm (around 3⁄32 inch) long. In the United States of America, this species grows in grasslands and open oak and juniper woodlands at elevations between 1600 and 1900 m (5300 to 6200 ft). In central Mexico, it occurs at elevations of 1500 to 3050 m (around 4900 to 10,000 ft), where it inhabits grasslands and clearings next to oak, oak-pine, and pine forests, as well as subtropical scrublands, and it may grow in association with swampy areas. A distribution map on the iNaturalist page for Nemastylis tenuis shows that the species is found in mountainous areas of the southwestern United States: southern Arizona and western Texas, and across upland Mexico extending south to Oaxaca state.
