DACF Home → Bureaus & Programs → Maine Natural Areas Program → Communities, Plants, and Animals → Rare Plants → Juncus subtilis
Juncus subtilis E. Mey.
Slender Rush
- State Rank: S1
- Global Rank: G5?
- State Status: Endangered
Habitat: Margins of ponds and shores [Non-tidal rivershore (non-forested, seasonally wet); Open wetland, not coastal nor rivershore (non-forested, wetland)]
Range: Newfoundland to Maine and western Quebec; Greenland.
Aids to Identification: Rushes are grass-like plants with 6 inconspicuous sepals and petals (called tepals) and capsular fruits. Juncus subtilis is easily recognized with or without flowers. It possesses septate-nodulose leaves borne in small clusters from the nodes of a prostate, creeping, or floating stem. The flowers usually number only one or two per plant.
Ecological characteristics: The flowers are sometimes modified into a tiny tuft of leaves called a bulbil. This bulbil is essentially a small plantlet and serves as a relatively inexpensive means of reproduction.
Phenology: Unknown
Family: Juncaceae
Synonyms: None noted.
Known Distribution in Maine: This rare plant has been documented from a total of 5 town(s) in the following county(ies): Aroostook, Piscataquis, Somerset.
Reason(s) for rarity: At southern limit of range.
Conservation considerations: Unknown.