Torrey's rush

Description

Juncus torreyi is a species of rush known by the common name Torrey's rush. It is native to North America, where it is widespread. It can be found in many habitats across the southern half of Canada, coast to coast in the United States, and throughout northern Mexico. This is a perennial herb growing from rhizomes with associated tiny tubers. The smooth stems vary in maximum height from 30 centimeters to around a meter. The leaves are green to pink or red and up to 30 centimeters long. The inflorescences have many dense, rounded clusters of up to 100 flowers each. The flower has narrow, pointed greenish, tan, or reddish tepals and six stamens. The fruit is a pointed brown capsule. Juncus is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants, commonly known as rushes. It is the largest genus in the family Juncaceae, containing around 300 species. Rushes of the genus Juncus are herbaceous plants that superficially resemble grasses or sedges. They have historically received little attention from botanists; in his 1819 monograph, James Ebenezer Bicheno described the genus as "obscure and uninviting". The form of the flower differentiates rushes from grasses or sedges. The flowers of Juncus comprise five whorls of floral parts: three sepals, three petals (or, taken together, six tepals), two to six stamens (in two whorls) and a stigma with three lobes. The stems are round in cross-section, unlike those of sedges, which are typically somewhat triangular in cross-section. In Juncus section Juncotypus (formerly called Juncus subg. Genuini), which contains some of the most widespread and familiar species, the leaves are reduced to sheaths around the base of the stem and the bract subtending the inflorescence closely resembles a continuation of the stem, giving the appearance that the inflorescence is lateral. Juncus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species found throughout the world, with the exception of Antarctica. They typically grow in cold or wet habitats, and in the tropics, are most common in montane environments. Several fossil fruits of a Juncus species have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.