aka common goldstar
Hypoxis hirsuta
Hypoxidaceae
(formerly Liliaceae)

This is a common plant, found through most of Maryland and much of the eastern US (but not Florida), and into the Midwest and Great Plains, with scattered occurrences further west. And yet I’ve never seen it until this spring, when I found this single plant blooming on Sugarloaf Mountain. I really do need to get out to new places more often.

There’s not much to say about it. The plant stands no taller than twelve inches, looking rather like a tuft of grass, but it isn’t. A flowering stem can hold several flowers.

Yellow star grass is threatened in New Hampshire and possibly extirpated in Maine.