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SOFT RUSH

NOMENCLATURE

Other Names: common rush

 Scientific Name: Juncus effusus L.

 Plant Family: Juncaceae

GENERAL INFORMATION

Botanical Description: emerged aquatic, rush

Stems: erect, soft, easy to compress, round in cross section (tubular), with small, longitudinal ridges, up to 1.5 - 4.0 feet tall, growing in dense clumps, with very pointed tip

 Leaves: Leaf sheaths are brown, about 8 inches long, grow near the stem base, and have a slender bristle at the end.

 Roots: rootstock stout, branching

 Flowers: very small, inconspicuous green to brown flowers, borne in loose branched clusters on the side of the stem 3 - 6 inches from the tip, with stamens and pistils in the same flower, appear June - August

 Seeds: tiny, 0.5 mm long, covered with threadlike netlike veins, somewhat egg-shaped, surrounded by four pointed bracts slightly longer than seed

 Seedling:

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

LIFE CYCLE

Reproduction: perennial

 Propagation: seed, underground root stock

 Dispersal: Invades new plantings from seeds residual in the soil or carried in on contaminated vines.

DISTRIBUTION

State: Common to wetlands throughout Wisconsin.

 National: Found in all states east of the Mississippi river.

 Origin:

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Requires excess undrained water; common on marshes, wetlands, bogs. Invades new plantings most easily. The most common round reed found in cranberry beds established on peat soils; also prevalent on muck soils. Common in wetlands adjoining cranberry marshes.

SCOUTING PROCEDURE/ET

Often most common in new plantings. While scouting a cranberry bed for disease and insect pests, identify weed populations as they arise. Note the specie(s) of weed present as well as the population level relative to field area. Example: 10% soft rush, 20% boneset and joe-pye weed mix.

REFERENCES

Dana, M. 1987. Cranberry Weeds in Wisconsin. Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 21.

 

HSfliger, E. et al. 1982. Monocot Weeds 3. Ciba-Geigy Ltd., Basle, Switzerland. p. 76.

 

Kummer, L. D., T. G. Dittl, and T. D. Planer. 1993. Wisconsin Cranberry Weeds. Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. p. 28.

 

Lorenzi, H. J. and L. S. Jeffery. 1987. Weeds of the United States and Their Control. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, New York. p. 95.

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