23. Juncus validus Coville

Pl. 95 j–l; Map 380

Aerial stems mostly 30–100 cm tall, caespitose, usually from short rhizomes. Leaves with the auricles at the top of the sheaths 1.5–2.5 mm long, papery, broadly pointed, the leaf blades 5–45 cm long, 3–7 mm wide, tubular and hollow, but somewhat flattened and elliptic to narrowly elliptic in cross-section, with cross-partitions at regular intervals. Basal leaves few, usually 1–3 of them lacking leaf blades. Leaves of the aerial stems 2–5. Inflorescences few-branched panicles, the branches ascending or spreading, the leaflike bract at the base shorter than the inflorescence. Flower clusters 15–75 per inflorescence, hemispherical to spherical, each with 25–70 flowers. Flowers lacking a pair of closely subtending bracts. Perianth 3.5–4.5 mm long, the sepals slightly longer than the petals, linear-lanceolate, the tips attenuate. Stamens 3 per flower. Fruits 4.5–5.5 mm long, 1.0–1.5 mm longer than the perianth, narrowly lanceolate in outline, tapering to a long beak, 1-locular. Seeds 0.3–0.4 mm long, both ends usually with short, somewhat darkened points. July–September.

Uncommon in southern Missouri in the Ozark and Unglaciated Plains Divisions (southeastern U.S. north to Missouri and North Carolina). Wet sandy depressions of mesic upland prairies, stream banks, and roadside ditches.