Juncus bufonius L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Juncaceae

• Scientific Name

  Juncus bufonius L.

• Description

  Species Description - Annual to 3 dm, the stems terete, sometimes branched; lvs basal and usually also cauline, capillary, 0.5–10 cm × 0.2–1.1 mm, convex on the lower surface, flat or channeled on the upper; fls often cleistogamous, scattered singly along the upper part (often more than half) of the stem, short-pedicellate or subsessile in the axils of hyaline-scarious or partly leafy bracts, each one also closely subtended by a pair of broad, hyaline-scarious bracteoles 1–2.5 mm; tep slender, with greenish midstrip and hyaline margins, mostly 3–6 mm, the outer a little the longer; anthers 6, 0.3–1 mm, up to as long as the filaments; style very short, fr imperfectly trilocular; seeds 0.3–0.6 mm, apiculate; 2n=26–120, a small polyploid pillar-complex. Moist or vernally wet or moist places; nearly cosmopolitan, and throughout our range. Most of our plants are polyploid and have acuminate pet slightly longer than the fr. A ± diploid halophytic phase, found in salt-marshes along the coast from Lab. to Mass., and widespread in Europe, differs morphologically from typical, widespread J. bufonius in its consistently small size (rarely to 15 cm) and obtuse or mucronate pet equaling or slightly shorter than the fr. This phase has been segregated as var. halophilus Fernald or J. ambiguus Guss.

• Common Names

  toad-rush