Tapertip Rush (Juncus acuminatus)
- Family: Rush (Juncaceae)
- Flowering: May-August.
- Field Marks: This rush, with hollow, cylindrical leaves, has flower heads each with 8 or more flowers and capsules about as long as the pointed sepals and petals.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, around ponds, along streams, wet prairies, roadside ditches.
- Habit: Perennial herb with short rootstocks.
- Stems: Erect, smooth, up to 3 feet tall, bearing 1-3 leaves.
- Leaves: Elongated, cylindrical, hollow, bearing conspicuous cross partitions, up to 8 inches long.
- Flowers: Several in hemispherical heads, with several heads in a branched cluster.
- Sepals: 3, green, lanceolate, pointed at the tip, shorter than or about as long as the capsule.
- Petals: 3, green, lanceolate, pointed at the tip, shorter than or about as long as the capsule.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Capsules narrowly ovoid, pale brown, up to 1/8 inch long.
- Notes: Some flowering heads also bear leafy outgrowths.
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