Last updated Dec. 17, 2004

Eastern Turkey Beard

The eastern turkey beard's dense clusters of creamy, starlike flowers bloom from May to July.

Flowering on stalks two to three feet high, they are tough, elegant lilies. Their lovely flowers have a sweet nectar that attracts insects and hummingbirds.

The plant is sometimes called beargrass, because in spring bears seek out and eat the roots and tender young leaves.

The leaves are thin (grass-like), elongated and up to two feet long. They form a tussock at the base of the plant.

The genus name, xerophyllum, is from the Greek words xeros ("dry") and phyllon ("leaf") and refers to the dry, wiry leaves that compose that tussock.

Flowers mature into fruit capsules with varying numbers of seeds.

The flower stalk dies after fruiting, but the tussock of leaves remains green throughout the winter.

Fire-control practices have helped make them hard to find in some areas. In the absence of a fire, relatively few turkey beard plants produce flowers each year.

The Naional Geographic reports that after a fire, however, they need only a year to recover before blooming.

NatureServe, a non-profit conservation organization, reports that they are ranked "vulnerable" in North Carolina and Tennessee. They are ranked as critically imperiled in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and West Virginia. They are believed to have disappeared from Delaware and perhaps from Kentucky.

Native to North Carolina, they are also found in the pine barrens of New Jersey, and the Appalachian woods of Virginia to Georgia and Alabama. The photograph on this page was taken in Cumberland County, N.C.

They grow in dry, strongly acidic woods and flourish where there are periodic fires. Those are likely to be sandy, pitch pine and blackjack oak forests. Or dry, oak-hickory woods that also feature some pine trees.

There are only two species in this group.

The other, Xerophyllum tenax, is native to the Western mountain ranges. Meriwether Lewis noted it in his expedition journal, observing that the leaves were so tough the horses would not eat them.

Both species are cultivated for their showy flowers.

Cultivated, albeit with much effort and patience. The plants are supported by tuberous, woody rhizomes. Offshoots may not flower for several years.

The flowers are lovely, but the wisdom of domesticating a wild plant that thrives on periodic fires might be debated.

Taxonomic Classification

• Superdivision: Spermatophyta -- (seed plants)
• Division: Magnoliophyta (flowering plants)
• Class: Liliopsida (Monocotyledons)
• Subclass: Liliidae
• Order: Liliiaes
• Family: Liliaceae (Lily family)
• Genus: Xerophyllum Michx. (beargrass)
• Species: Xerophyllum asphodeloides (L.) Nutt. -Ð(eastern turkey beard)

References

Flora of North America: Xerophyllum Michaux

NatureServe Explorer Data Search