Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Juncus validus Coville
- Family: Rush (Juncaceae)
- Flowering: July-September
- Field Marks: This is one of several species of rushes which has flowers crowded in spherical heads and which has septate leaves. It differs from all other similar species by the very narrow capsule longer than the sepals and petals, and its flattened, uncurved leaves.
- Habitat: Wet ditches, pond margins, stream margins, marshes, damp fields, wet prairies.
- Habit: Perennial, usually clump-forming herb, with rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, smooth, up to 3 feet tall.
- Leaves: Alternate, mostly on the lower half of the stem, elongated, slender, flattened, septate, up to 1/4 inch wide; sheaths greenish.
- Flowers: Flowers crowded into several spherical heads in cymes, each head 1/2-2/3 inch in diameter.
- Sepals: 3, green turning brown, narrowly lanceolate, up to 1/4 inch long.
- Petals: 3, green turning brown, narrowly lanceolate, usually slightly shorter than the sepals.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Capsules very narrowly lanceolate, straw-colored, smooth, up to 1/3 inch long, always longer than the sepals and petals; seeds many, broadly elliptic, pale brown, finely net-veined.
Previous Species -- Needle-pod Rush (Juncus scirpoides)
Return to Species List -- Group 4
Next Species -- Carolina Redroot (Lachnanthes caroliniana)
