Juncus tiehmii

Tiehm's rush, Tiehm's Rush

Family: Juncaceae · Type: annual · Native

Tiehm's rush is a California native annual found in the Sierra Nevada, Transverse Ranges, Mojave Desert, and Peninsular Ranges in moist granitic sand of seeps, streambanks, and meadows at elevations of 300 to 3,100 meters. Tiny and densely clustered, this delicate rush produces pale green or pink flowers in small clusters with 1 to 7 flowers per stem. Growing as a compact, dense tussock just 0.5 to 6 centimeters tall with extremely slender stems less than 0.2 millimeters wide, it forms intricate miniature clumps. Its basal leaves are short, measuring less than 2.5 centimeters long, with no sheath appendages. The fruit is generally longer than the perianth, with seeds that are distinctively striate and small, measuring just 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Bare, moist granitic sand of seeps, streambanks, meadows

Elevation: 300-3100 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH, SCoRO, SnGb, SnBr, PR, MP, SnBr/DMoj

California counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Sierra, Tulare, Tuolumne, Inyo, Monterey, Modoc, Siskiyou, Lassen, Fresno, Mono, Ventura, Placer

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