Juncus oxycarpus
E.Mey. ex KunthTufted rhizomatous perennial. Culms erect or occasionally decumbent, new shoots sometimes arising from nodes, to c. 60 cm high. Leaves cauline; blade becoming hollow with age, with rather inconspicuous transverse septa when fresh, but more obvious when dry, usually shorter than the culms, slightly to distinctly compressed, 0.5–3 mm wide, apex broadly acute or rarely obtuse; auricles usually obtuse, up to c 2.5 mm long. Inflorescence of 1–6(–12) usually discrete clusters, each with 5–40(–50) flowers, (6–)8–10(–11) mm wide in fruit; primary bract shorter or longer than inflorescence; prophylls absent. Tepals curved, midrib soon tinged reddish-brown, margins pale, membranous; outer tepals 3.1–4.5 mm long, acute to acuminate; inner equal to or slightly shorter than outer, obtuse to acute; stamens 3–6, anthers 0.5–0.9 mm long. Capsules dark reddish-brown (at least in upper half), trigonous-ovoid, c. 3–4 mm long, equal to or exceeding tepals, tapered gradually or rather abruptly to a distinct mucro to 0.5 mm long; seeds 0.4–0.6 mm long, slightly asymmetrical, finely reticulate-patterned discernible at moderately high magnification, minutely apiculate at each end. Flowers noted in Nov. and Dec., seeds shed mostly Dec.–Mar.
Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS. Also naturalised WA. Native to southern Africa. First collected in Victoria in 1966, apparently confined to the Halls Gap area in the Grampians and near Coleraine where common in moist roadside depressions and along creeks but likely to expand its range.
Most closely resembles Juncus holoschoenus and J. pallescens. In the Grampians it grows with J. holoschoenus and is readily distinguished from that species by the darker capsules and tepals, anthers longer than or equal to the filaments (cf. anthers shorter than filaments) and the tendency to have more-elongated rhizomes.
Albrecht, D.E. (1994). Juncus. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 197–233. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning