Juncus effusus

Flutter - rush ( Juncus effusus )

The flap bulrush or flutter ledges ( Juncus effusus ) belongs to the family of the Rushes ( Juncaceae ). It is a characteristic plant of moist to wet locations.

Description

The flap bulrush is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches the stature heights between 30 to 120 centimeters. They often forms large clumps. The stems grow upright rigid. They are round and smooth, rarely slightly striped. Stems and leaves are grass green and filled with a non- chambered Mark. The stems bear only one inflorescence superior sheet. The basal leaf sheaths are reddish brown to black-brown, not shiny and spreitenlos.

The inflorescence is a seemingly pendant Spirre. This is easy to spread contracted rarely capitate and many flowered. The three outermost of the six between 1.5 and 2.5 millimeters long tepals are slightly longer than the inner ones. They are greenish with a wide margin of skin, ovate and pointed, and always shorter than the fruit. The individual flowers usually have only three stamens ( stamens ), rarely six. These are shorter than the stamens (filaments ). The three scars stand upright. The shiny brown capsule fruit is triangular, slightly widened above and sunk at the top. The stylus is sitting in this depression. The seeds are small and light reddish brown. The heyday of the flutter - rush extends from June to August.

Ecology

The flap bulrush is an evergreen plant Horst and a marsh plant with long, creeping rhizome. Its leaves are reduced. Photosynthesis occurs in up to 6 mm thick, rounded stems. All plant parts are with a white aerenchyma, called aerenchyma equipped, which consists of dead, stellate cells, and can be interpreted as an adaptation to oxygen- poor soils. After removing the bark of the stem, the foam -like aerenchyma, which is also called "mark" can be easily pushed out with your fingernail. The weak vorweiblichen flowers open at the same time in " pulses ". The flowering period extends from June to August. Pollination of flowers carried by the wind ( anemophily ).

The reichblütigen Spirren hibernate. The fact that the stalk- like bract continuing the stem directly, the inflorescence is apparently pendant.

The fruits are loculicidal capsules and operate as wind and animal shakers. The tiny seeds are as granules airmen continued to spread and because they adhere wet well, as Klebhafter; they are light to germinate.

Vegetative reproduction occurs by branching of the creeping rhizome.

As half - light to full light plant flapping bulrush can not tolerate shade. Your ecological focus is on moist, acidic, nitrogen-poor to moderate nitrogen-rich soils. It is promoted in the wet grassland by grazing, as it is reluctant eaten by cattle, and of vegetation has been cleared by crossing points can rapidly colonize. Due to their high propagation force and ability to compete with other grassland species they can develop species-poor stocks and is therefore considered " pasture weeds ". Characteristic are the projects from the grazed grassland nests. The bins greenhouse is characteristic of the plant community flutter rushes willow ( Epilobio - Juncetum effusion ), a company compacted by livestock to kick, jam or sickernassen, nutrient-rich sites. This often comes in small areas also in sinks or on the outlets of sources in pasture areas; in some cases also damage vegetation scar by vehicles.

Distribution and location

The flap is rush world, primarily in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere often be found in the tropics the type particularly common at higher elevations in the Andes, for example, at altitudes up to 3600 meters. In the temperate latitudes of the southern hemisphere, however, it is only to be found scattered.

It grows in moist to wet locations such as wet meadows and wet meadows, bogs, along roadsides or in the woods beats and preferred sicker - up waterlogged, nutrient-rich, usually low in calcium, moderately acid clay or peat soils.

System

According to Kirschner, J. et al. (2002) distinguish five subspecies:

• Juncus effusus subsp. austrocalifornicus; California to Mexico
• Juncus effusus subsp. effusus; Northern hemisphere to South America
• Juncus effusus subsp. laxus; Indian Ocean, South Africa
• Juncus effusus subsp. pacificus; Alaska to Mexico
• Juncus effusus subsp. solutus; eastern North America

The specific epithet effusus is of Latin origin of effúndere = spread and refers to the loosely spread, " flattrigen " inflorescences of bulrush.