Short Leaf Rush

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, to 8 dm. Rhizomes densely branching. Cataphylls 1--2. Leaves basal, 2--5; auricles 0.4--1.1(--2) mm, scarious; blade flat, 9--25 cm x 0.8--1.5(--2.4) mm, margins entire wide, becoming involute under xeric conditions. Inflorescences 10--150-flowered, usually congested, 1.5--8 cm; primary bract usually longer than inflorescence. Flowers: bracteoles 2; tepals green to tannish, lanceolate, 3.5--5.7 mm; outer and inner series nearly equal, in fruit apex appressed to capsule; stamens 6, filaments 0.6--1.1 mm, anthers 0.56--0.91 mm; style 0.2 mm. Capsules dark tan to reddish brown, 3-locular, ellipsoid to narrowly so, 2.6--4.7 x 1.3--2 mm, barely shorter than tepals. Seeds tan, ellipsoid to lunate, (0.32--)0.45--0.52(--0.65) mm, not tailed. 2n = ca. 80.

Ark., Calif., Idaho, Kans., La., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Okla., Oreg., Tex.as, Wash.

Flowering and fruiting late spring--early summer.

Exposed moist or wet soils associated with depressions in temporal wetlands, along stream banks or lake shores especially in sandy soils; 900--1650m.

Juncus kansanus F. J. Hermann