Juncus tenuis

Poverty or slender rush, Slender Rush

Family: Juncaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Poverty rush is a native perennial found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, Central Coast, San Gabriel Mountains, and Modoc Plateau in damp places at elevations generally below 1,500 meters. Flowering from late spring to summer, this rush produces green to reddish-brown flowers with delicate, narrow perianth parts. Growing in dense clumps with slender stems 20 to 60 centimeters tall, it forms soft, flexible clusters with thin, grass-like appearance. Its leaves are narrow, approximately 1 to 1.3 millimeters wide, with translucent sheath margins that have thin, acute appendages. The tiny seeds, measuring 0.4 to 0.5 millimeters long, contribute to this rush's delicate and understated character.

Habitat: Uncommon. Damp places

Elevation: generally < 1500 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN (exc Teh), GV, CCo, SnGb, MP

California counties: Butte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Plumas, Shasta, Yuba, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Siskiyou, Trinity, Riverside, Nevada, Calaveras, Amador, Marin, San Francisco, Sacramento, Tehama, Placer, Solano, Alameda, Kings, Sutter, Glenn, Sierra, Modoc, Lassen, Del Norte, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Fresno, Madera, Monterey, Ventura, Tuolumne, Sonoma, Lake, San Mateo, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz

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