Juncus
Family: Juncaceae
Juncus image
Max Licher  
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Ralph E. Brooks*;Steven E. Clemants*;  in Flora of North America (vol. 22)
Herbs, perennial or rarely annual, rhizomatous or cespitose. Culms round or flattened in cross section. Cataphylls often present at culm base. Leaves: sheaths open; blade flat, channeled, ensiform or terete, sometimes septate, margins involute. Inflorescences terminal or pseudoaxillary, monochasia or dichasia, usually with monochasial branches, cymes or 1--many heads in racemes or panicles; bracteoles 2 or absent. Flowers: tepals (4--)6 in 2 whorls; stamens (2--)3--6. Capsules 1-locular or 3-locular, septicidal. Seeds many, ellipsoid to ovoid, sometimes tailed.
Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Tep narrow, lance-subulate to lance-ovate, dry, often firm and even sharp; stamens 6 or 3, opposite the sep when only 3; ovary and fr trilocular, subtrilocular (with incomplete partitions) or unilocular; seeds several to usually numerous (in any case more than 3), commonly ellipsoid or fusiform and minutely apiculate, sometimes with each end prolonged into a slender tail that may be longer than the body; smooth (1 of our spp. scabrous) herbs with usually simple stems and a few flat or terete, basal or cauline lvs, sometimes with bladeless sheaths only, and with a terminal, compact to loosely branched cyme of few-many fls, these solitary, paired, or often in glomerules; lf-sheaths open. 200, cosmop.

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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Species within checklist: Red Butte Canyon, UT
Juncus bufonius
Image of Juncus bufonius
Juncus ensifolius
Image of Juncus ensifolius
Juncus longistylis
Image of Juncus longistylis
Juncus mertensianus
Image of Juncus mertensianus
Juncus torreyi
Image of Juncus torreyi
Juncus tracyi
Image of Juncus tracyi