Species of plant
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Juncus fontanesii, also known as Desfontaines' rush, is a species of rush in the family Juncaceae.
Description.
Resembling a "J. articulatus" with sprawling stems, or for "ssp. brachyanthus" mat-forming.
Inflorescence is a lax display of spherical heads of flowers.
The leaves are tubular with inner cross divisions chambering the leaf into long sections very obvious when opened or dried; there are no lengthwise divisions.
The stems, as well as upright ones, sprawl on the ground and in the case of "ssp. fontanesii" these ground stems are conspicuously long (to 2 m) and frequent, for the others they are at most few, though there are underground rhizomes.
The fruit capsule is conspicuously longer than the 6 tepals and for "ssp pyramidatus" and "ssp kotschyi" is contracted at the top with a sizeable tip (like "J. articulatus" but clearly longer, 0.5-1(1.5) mm) whilst for "ssp. fontanesii" the fruit tip gradually tapers (1–2 mm).
The tepals are rather greenish with narrowly acutely pointed tips (not rounded), with the inner 3 tepals longer than the outer 3 (in contrast to "J. articulatus" where longer tepals are the outer). They are over 3mm (except "ssp. brachyanthus").
"ssp. kotschyi" is small (8-15 (rarely 25) cm) with tepals with broad pale margins ("ssp. pyramidalis" very narrow pale margins).
Occasional intermediates between "ssp. fontanesii" and "ssp. pyramidatus" are found from Italy eastwards.
This is a Mediterranean/West-Asian species; outside that range there may be species resembling it.
References.
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