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Tapertip Rush (Juncus acuminatus)

• Family: Rush (Juncaceae)
• Flowering: May-August.
• Field Marks: This rush, with hollow, cylindrical leaves, has flower heads each with 8 or more flowers and capsules about as long as the pointed sepals and petals.
• Habitat: Wet meadows, around ponds, along streams, wet prairies, roadside ditches.
• Habit: Perennial herb with short rootstocks.
• Stems: Erect, smooth, up to 3 feet tall, bearing 1-3 leaves.
• Leaves: Elongated, cylindrical, hollow, bearing conspicuous cross partitions, up to 8 inches long.
• Flowers: Several in hemispherical heads, with several heads in a branched cluster.
• Sepals: 3, green, lanceolate, pointed at the tip, shorter than or about as long as the capsule.
• Petals: 3, green, lanceolate, pointed at the tip, shorter than or about as long as the capsule.
• Stamens: 3.
• Pistils: Ovary superior.
• Fruits: Capsules narrowly ovoid, pale brown, up to 1/8 inch long.
• Notes: Some flowering heads also bear leafy outgrowths.