Juncus bufonius

Toad rush, Toad Rush

Family: Juncaceae · Type: annual · Native

Toad rush is a California native annual found in various bioregions across diverse habitats at low to moderate elevations. Flowering from March to June, this tiny plant produces inconspicuous greenish-white flowers in small, clustered arrangements throughout the plant. Growing with slender, generally branched stems just 2 to 10 centimeters tall and approximately 1 millimeter wide, it forms delicate, sprawling clusters. Its leaves are sparse, narrow, and cauline, measuring 0.5 to 1.5 millimeters wide, with typically 1 to 3 leaves per stem. The fruit is small and oblong, with perianth parts 2 to 7 millimeters long and sepals typically longer than petals.

California counties: Ventura, San Bernardino, San Diego, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Humboldt, Lake, Monterey, Placer, Plumas, San Francisco, Tulare, Inyo, Orange, Lassen, San Mateo, Modoc, Madera, El Dorado, Sacramento, Napa, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, Marin, Sonoma, Yolo, Mendocino, Tehama, Solano, Colusa, Siskiyou, Shasta, Merced, Tuolumne, Santa Clara, Mono, Del Norte, Nevada, Trinity, Sutter, Stanislaus, Glenn, Sierra

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.