Many blue-eyed-grass species including ours have a large leafy bract at the middle of their stem. This bract looks like a continuation of the stem--as if the stem itself is all of a sudden ending with a leafy tip. It is from the sheath of this bract that the long peduncle with the flower is originating. On that peduncle, there is another, smaller bract subtending the flower. The latter is called spathe.