Grasswidow is a small native member of the iris family and one of the earliest wildflowers of the year, sometimes opening in late winter. From a clump of narrow, grass-like leaves it raises flattened stems up to about a foot tall, each bearing one to a few flowers that emerge from a pair of upright, leaf-like bracts.
The flowers are the reason to stop. Each has six tepals, usually reddish purple to pink and rarely white, with a satin sheen that catches the low early-season sun. The three stamens are joined only in their lower part, a detail that separates it from its yellow- and blue-flowered relatives. Many kinds of insects visit.
Grasswidow grows where the ground is soaked in early spring and then dries hard by summer: open rocky sites, grassy bluffs and prairies, oak and ponderosa pine woodlands, and sagebrush and juniper country. It grows on both sides of the Cascades but is more widespread east of the crest, and two varieties occur in the region.
Look for it on sunny, rocky openings at lower elevations, early in the season before most other flowers have started.
How to identify it
Grass-like clumps of flattened stems up to about 12 inches tall with very narrow leaves. Flowers have six satiny tepals up to about 0.8 inch long, usually reddish purple to pink, rarely white, and three stamens joined only in their lower third to half.
Look-alikes
Blue-eyed grasses look similar but have blue or yellow flowers whose stamen filaments are joined nearly to the tip. Grasswidow's flowers are reddish purple to pink, rarely white.
Habitat
Open, rocky ground, grassy bluffs, prairies, oak and ponderosa pine woodlands and sagebrush flats that are wet in early spring and dry later. It grows on both sides of the Cascades but is more widespread on the east side, generally at lower elevations.
Sightings in the forest
440 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on May 13, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →