Needlepod Rush

Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous, tosometimes nearly cespitose, 0.8--7 dm. Rhizomes usually tuberous, 2--4 mm diam. Culms erect, terete, 1--3 mm diam., smooth. Cataphylls 0--1. Leaves: basal 1--2, cauline 2--3, green; auricles 1--2 mm, apex rounded, membranaceous; blade terete, 2--23 cm x 1--2 mm, distal cauline leaf blade 1.6--26 cm, equaling or longer than sheath. Inflorescences terminal panicles of 1--23(--32) heads, 2.5--9 cm, branches ascending to erect; primary bracts erect; heads 20--60-flowered, spheric or usually lobed, 6--11 mm diam. Flowers: tepals green to straw-colored, lance-subulate, 2--3.5 mm, nearly equal, apex acuminate; stamens 3, anthers 1/3 filament length. Capsules exserted, straw-colored, 1-locular, lance-subulate, 3--4 mm, apex tapering, remaining attached at tip, valves not separating at dehiscence, fertile throughout or only proximal to middle. Seeds oblong, 0.4 mm, not tailed; body clear yellow-brown.

Ala., Ark., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Mich., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va. , W.Va.

Fruiting early summer--fall.

Wet sandy soil, salt marshes, lake shores, ditches, meadows, wet woods; 0--1400m.

Juncus echinatus Muhlenberg; J. scirpoides var. compositus Harper; J. scirpoides var. genuinus Buchenau; J. scirpoides var. macrostemon Engelmann; J. scirpoides var. meridionalis Buchenau

Juncus scirpoides, the needlepod rush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Juncaceae, native to the central and eastern United States. It prefers wet sandy soils, and among the many places it grows it is common in the enigmatic Carolina bays.