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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE RUSH FAMILY | |||||||||
| The rushes are generally widespread in Saskatchewan in moist habitats such as lakeshores, riverbanks, and sloughs. These plants may look like grasses because the leaves are long and linear. The leaves are in three vertical rows, instead of two vertical rows like in the grasses. The flowers are small and plain. The tepals are usually green or brown and papery in texture. The flowers are clustered into heads and then into branched or unbranched inflorescences. The inflorescences are subtended by bracts. In some species, the bracts are leaf-like and make the inflorescence look like it is coming from the side of the stem instead of the top. The fruit is a capsule. | |||||||||
| ROCKY MOUNTAIN RUSH | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Juncus saximontanus | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Rocky Mountain rush grows as tall as 60 cm from a rhizome. Each plant has one to three basal leaves and two to six stem leaves. This species has ear-like lobes at the base of the stem. The inflorescence is a branched or unbranched cluster of one to 20 heads. The branches, if present, are pointed upwards. The heads each have three to 70 flowers. The flowers do not have the small bracts at the base of the flower as some rushes do. The tepals are nearly the same length, with the inner series being slightly shorter than the outer series. The tepals are brown to reddish-brown. Each flower has six stamens and the anthers are shorter than the filaments. The capsules are slightly longer than the tepals. The seeds are less than 1 mm long and may have a tail. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Rocky Mountain rush grows in moist meadows, lake shores, springy places, and high fescue grasslands. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in southwestern Saskatchewan in the Cypress Upland ecoregion. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Rocky Mountain rush is endangered in Saskatchewan because it is extremely rare and highly restricted within the province. No immediate threats are known for this species at the present time. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY ROCKY MOUNTAIN RUSH | |||||||||
| * Are the anthers shorter than the filaments? * Do the flowers have six stamens? * Are there ear-like lobes at the base of the leaf? * Did you find it in southwestern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found Rocky Mountain rush! | |||||||||
