Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

61. Juncaceae, the Rush Family

1. Juncus L. -- Rush

5. Juncus bufonius L. -- Toad rush

Small, tufted annual 5-20 cm tall. Culms usually crowded, typically much shorter than the inflorescence, 1-10 cm to the base of the inflorescence. Leaves usually shorter than the culm, the blades 0.5-1 mm wide; basal sheaths green to suffused with red or brown, white-hyaline along the margins, rounded to truncate at the summit; auricles lacking. Inflorescence 1/3 to nearly the entire length of the plant, freely branched or sparsely so in diminutive specimens; bracteoles obtuse to mucronate, 1-2 mm long. Flowers solitary, mostly sessile and secund on the branches, green, 4-6 mm long; tepals with hyaline margins, the outer ones acute, the inner acute to obtuse and shorter than the outer ones; stamens 6. Capsules cylindric-ovoid, 1-locular, shorter than the perianth; seeds ovoid, brown, 0.2-0.4 mm long, apiculate at both ends. Jun--Aug. Shores, mud flats, stream banks and other temporarily flooded places; occasional; (Throughout most of N.Amer.; also Eurasia).
GIF- Distribution Map

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Menlo Park, CA [caww55]