Juncus pelocarpus E.Mey.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Juncaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Rhizomatous, colonial, ± erect, mostly 1–5 dm, with very slender, obscurely septate lvs; infl much branched, 5–15 cm, broadly ovoid or obpyramidal with ascending branches to flattened with divaricate branches, bearing numerous solitary or paired, distinctly secund fls, some or all of the fls usually replaced by subulate bulbils; fls eprophyllate; tep oblong, scarious on the margins and at the obtuse tip, the sep 1.6–2.3 mm, the pet 1.8–2.8 mm; anthers 6, longer than the filaments; fr narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid, 2.4–3.1 mm, gradually acuminate into a slender beak, unilocular, the placentae fertile only below the middle; seeds few, plump, 0.4 mm; 2n=40. Moist boggy or sandy soil and shores, in soft-water habitats with a seasonably variable water-level. Var. pelocarpus, ranging from Lab., Nf. and Que. to Minn., s. to Del., Md., and n. Ind., is dwarf, mostly 1–3 dm, erect or prostrate (but not repent), the rhizome 1 mm thick or less. The ill-defined clinal var. crassicaudex Engelm. (J. abortivus), occurring irregularly from se. Va. to Fla., is stouter, 3–8 dm, erect, the rhizome 2–5 mm thick.