Juncus marginatus

Juncus marginatus a grass-like herbaceous, short-lived perennial growing from short rhizomes.[2] Plants produce dense tufts or clumps growing 30-130 cm tall.[3] The plants are sometimes rhizomatous. The leaf blades are flat. The flowers are grouped together into a terminal inflorescence called a glomerulus.[4] Each flower has three stamens and three sharply acute sepals that are reddish brown in color. The plump and ribbed seeds are produced in a rounded and beakless capsule. The small yellow to light brown seeds are spindle shaped, and around 0.5mm in length and lack a tail but have sharp points on either end (apiculate).[2][3] The diploid chromosome count is 38.[3]

Juncus marginatus grows in North America in the Eastern and Southeastern US, ranging to Texas and South Dakota.[4] It is also found Ontario Canada, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, New Mexico, the West Indies (Cuba), and Central America; where is found growing in moist to wet bogs, on shorelines, in marshes and ditches - with sandy, peaty, or clayey soils.[3] One historic population existed in Minnesota until 1999 when other small populations were found in Anoka County; because of its rarity it was listed as an endangered specie in the state.[2] In Minnesota the species is found growing in shallow wetlands/prairies of the Anoka Sand Plain where the normally dry sandy ground dips below the water table.[2]