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Alpine Rush

Alpine Rush

Juncus alpinoarticulatus

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How common: Common

Alpine Rush is a slender rush of wet places. It grows across northern and eastern Europe and also in parts of Asia and North America. You’ll often see it along shores, on boggy ground and in ditches.

Did you know?

  • Has several subspecies and can hybridise with Jointed Rush.
  • Its flowers are pollinated by the wind.

About the species

Identification

Slender, upright plant 20–50 cm tall from a short creeping base. Stems straight, not swollen at the base. Leaves 2–4, very narrow (about 1–1.7 mm), round and clearly jointed, looking like tiny segments along their length. The flowering head is narrow with upright branches; most flowers are in small clusters and are tiny and brown. Later it bears small brown pods a little longer than the brown scales around them. The round, jointed leaves help tell it from many other rushes; it can grow with Jointed Rush and they sometimes hybridise. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Grasses, sedges and rushes

Habitat

shore

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Wet ground such as lake and river edges, bogs and fens, ditches, wet tracks and gravel pits. Common throughout the country.

Sources

Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juncus alpinoarticulatus kz04.jpg

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Gagea-Hepatica, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40215

Text: Pinkka: BIO-513 Syventävä putkilokasvituntemus - Hippophaë-Lythrum, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40215

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rantavihvil%C3%A4

See also