Juncus tenuis subsp. tenuis
Common name
track rush
Family
Juncaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Rushes & Allied Plants
Similar taxa
Roots fibrous, tufted. Stem 15 to 60 cm tall, slender, round, hollow, wiry, dark green, branching at the top, not jointed. Leaves very narrow, glass-like, mostly at the base of the stems. Flowers small, greenish-brown, with 6 scale-like bracts surrounding the seed pod; borne in clusters of 3 at the tips of the stems. Seed pod nearly egg-shaped, brown, splitting into three sections when mature (Wax, Fawcett and Isely 1981).
Flower colours
Brown, Green
Life cycle
Seeds brown, small about 3mm long, with minute crossline markings (Wax, Fawcett and Isely 1981).
Year naturalised
1922
Origin
N. and S. America
Etymology
juncus: From the Latin jungere ‘to tie or bind’, the stems of some species being used to make cord (Johnson and Smith)
References and further reading
Johnson, A. T. and Smith, H. A (1986). Plant Names Simplified: Their pronunciation, derivation and meaning. Landsman Bookshop Ltd: Buckenhill, UK.