Common Name: RUSH FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb generally from rhizomes. Stem: round or flat. Leaf: generally basal; sheath margins fused, or overlapping and generally with 2 ear-like extensions at blade junction; blade round, flat, or vestigial, glabrous or margin hairy. Inflorescence: head-like clusters or flowers 1, variously arranged; bracts subtending inflorescence 2, generally leaf-like; bracts subtending inflorescence branches 1--2, reduced; bractlets subtending flowers generally 1--2, generally translucent. Flower: generally bisexual, radial; sepals and petals similar, persistent, scale-like, green to brown or +- purple-black; stamens generally 3 or 6, anthers linear, persistent; pistil 1, ovary superior, chambers generally 1 or 3, placentas 1 and basal or 3 and axile or parietal, stigmas generally > style. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal. Seed: 3--many, generally with white appendages on 1 or both ends.
Genera In Family: 7 genera, 440 species: temperate, arctic, and tropical mountains. Note: Flowers late spring to early fall.
eFlora Treatment Author: Peter F. Zika, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: RUSH
Habit: Rhizome 0 or generally with scale-like leaves. Stem: generally cylindric or flat. Leaf: blade well developed and cylindric or flat, occasionally closely resembling stem, or reduced to small point; crosswalls generally present; appendages generally present at blade-sheath junction. Inflorescence: generally terminal, appearing lateral when pushed aside by inflorescence bract; bractlets 0--2. Flower: sepals, petals similar; stamens generally 3 or 6(2); pistil 1, ovary chambers 1--3, placentas axile or parietal, stigmas generally 3(2). Seed: many.
Etymology: (Latin: to join or bind, from use of stems) Note: All species with leaf crosswalls may have leaves, stems swollen, deformed by sucking insects. Fruiting time given instead of flowering time. Plants included in TJM2 as Juncus brachyphyllus now treated in California as a new species, Juncus trilocularis (Zika 2012 Rhodora 114:309--329); Juncus bulbosus, Juncus dichotomus, and Juncus elliottii, only noted as naturalized in TJM2, now fully treated.
eFlora Treatment Author: Peter F. Zika
Reference: [Ertter 1986 Mem New York Bot Gard 39:1--90]

Habit: Perennial herb generally 10--50 cm; rhizome elongate, creeping. Stem: slender. Leaf: sheath appendages 2--3.5 mm, membranous; blade generally < 2 mm wide, cylindric or +- flattened, crosswalls complete, green or glaucous. Inflorescence: variable in dimensions, density, darkness; lowest bract inconspicuous; clusters 1--many, < 50-flowered. Flower: perianth parts 3--4.5 mm, +- equal, mid- to dark-brown; stamens 6, filaments < to > anthers. Fruit: generally <= perianth, oblong, shiny brown; tip abruptly beaked. Seed: 0.4--0.6 mm, narrow elliptic, ovate, or +- spherical, brown; appendages +- 0.
Note: Important forage for cattle and horses. Narrow-leaved mountain plants need study.