General: Perennial, loosely tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems erect, 15-75 cm long.
Leaves: Located on the lower 1/3 of the stem, narrow (0.5-1.5 mm wide), flattened, lacking cross-walls; sheaths open, up to 6 mm long, longer than wide, thin, translucent, pointed, ear-shaped lobes.
Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, 5-15 cm long, with few to numerous flowers, the flowers each with 2 involucral bractlets, the bracts ascending and longer than the inflorescence; perianth segments green, 3-4.5 mm long, pointed, the inner about the same length as the outer; stamens 6; anthers 0.6-0.8 mm long, shorter than the filaments.
Fruits: Capsules, broadly cylindrical, rounded, 1-celled, about the same length as the perianth segments; seeds ellipsoid, about 0.4-0.6 mm long, lacking tail-like appendages.
Notes: This species complex was treated as a single, variable species in Ceska (1994) but in this manual I have segregated Juncus confusus, J. dudleyi, and J. interior as separate species.
Dry to moist meadows, pastures, roadsides and ditches, mostly on disturbed soil in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in BC south of 55degreeN, infrequent in N BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, MA, PA, NC, FL, MS, TX, NM, AZ and CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
