Common Woodrush

Many names have been applied to members of this variable complex throughout the range of this flora. No monograph is yet available to enable a satisfactory treatment.

Culms densely to loosely cespitose, 10--40 cm. Leaves: basal leaves 3.5--12 cm x 2--6 mm; cauline leaves equaling or exceeding inflorescences. Inflorescences: glomerules 3--16 (each with 8--16 flowers), 1--2 nearly sessile with others on evident peduncles, mostly cylindric; secondary branches sometimes present, usually straight, erect; proximal inflorescence bract barely as long as to exceeding inflorescence. Flowers: tepals pale brown to chestnut brown to blackish with clear margins, 2--4 mm; outer and inner whorl ± equal, or outer whorl slightly longer (outer whorl pointed, inner whorl pointed or truncate-mucronate); anthers not more than 2 times filament length; stigmas 0.8--1.5 mm; styles not persistent in fruit. Capsules pale to brown to black, globose, shorter than to ± equaling tepals. Seeds 1.1--1.7 mm; caruncles 0.2--0.6 mm.

Plants densely tufted, 16--35 cm tall. Stolons few or absent. Stems terete. Basal leaves several, cauline leaves 1--3; leaf blade linear-lanceolate, flat, 4--11 cm × 2--4 mm, usually pilose except for apical callus, apex obtuse. Inflorescence subumbellate, with 5--9(--12) flower clusters; basal involucral bract 2--5 cm; clusters borne on erect branches, pedunculate, ovoid to narrowly so or subsessile and subglobose, 4--10-flowered. Pedicels with 1 or 2 bracts at base; bracteoles broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm. Perianth segments pale brown to reddish brown, all lanceolate or inner ones ovate to elliptic, 2.5--3 × ca. 0.9 mm, subequal, margin hyaline. Filaments 0.6--0.8 mm; anthers 1--1.5 mm. Style 0.7--0.9 mm, subequaling ovary; stigmas spirally turned, 1.4--1.8 mm. Capsule brown to reddish brown or blackish brown, obovoid or broadly ellipsoid to ovoid, shorter than or subequaling perianth, apex mucronulate. Seeds ellipsoid, ca. 1.2 mm; appendage basal, to 1/2 as long as seed. Fl. May--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug. 2 n = 24, 36.

Temperate regions of N. Hemisphere, Australia.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Sikkim; Europe, North America, Oceania].

3200-4000 m

Forest and ravine margins, mountain valleys, wet stream banks, grasslands on slopes and in high mountains; 1900--3600 m.

Juncus. multiflorus (Ehrhart) Ehrhart, Calam. Gram. Tripet. Linn., no. 127. 1794, not Retzius 1795; J. campestris (Linnaeus) de Candolle var. multiflorus Ehrhart