Scientific name: Juncus tenuis Willd.
Common name: Slender Rush
Description
Habit: Annuals to perennials. Often more or less aquatic. Up to 60cm high, densely tufted, very slender and wiry.
Leaves: Leaves various, grass-like to rush-like, glabrous, with a few basal sheaths and 2-3 basal cauline leaves, very narrow, channelled, about as long as stem, 0.5-2mm wide, flat.
Flowers: Flowers hermaphrodite, regular, greenish, in a loose, terminal panicle, overtopped by two or three slender, leaf-like bracts, inflorescence with 5-40 flowers, usually lax; perianth inconspicuous, membranous, whitish or brownish, consisting of 6 free segments in two whorls of 3; ovary 1-3-celled, with many ovules, style 0 or 1, stigmas 3, linear; stamens 6, rarely 3, stamens 1/2 as long as perianth, anthers 0.7-0.8mm, 1/2-2/3 as long as the filaments.
Fruits: A capsule with 3 or numerous seeds, shorter than perianth, broadly ovoid, obtuse to truncate, tipped with a short, sharp abrupt point; seeds 0.3-0.4mm, obliquely ovoid, with short appendages.
Habitat: Damp roadsides, tracks and paths.
Distribution: Widespread but very local.
Native status: Not native
Of conservation interest: No