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Vascular Plants of California
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Juncus
RUSH

Higher Taxonomy
Family: JuncaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

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.
Juncus
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.
Species In Genus: 315 species: worldwide, especially northern hemisphere. 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.
Jepson eFlora Author: Peter F. Zika
Reference: [Ertter 1986 Mem New York Bot Gard 39:1--90]
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Juncus

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Citation for this treatment: Peter F. Zika 2015, Juncus, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 3, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=9148, accessed on April 18, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 2024.