台湾灯心草 tai wan deng xin cao

Plants perennial, 14--25 cm tall. Rhizome short, creeping. Stems terete, ca. 2 mm in diam. Basal and cauline leaves 2 or 3; leaf sheath auricles well developed; leaf blade terete, 2--27 cm, on cauline leaves tubular and distinctly septate. Inflorescences terminal, shorter than cauline leaves; involucral bract leaflike; heads many, hemispheric, many flowered. Bracteoles ovate, ca. 2 × 1 mm, apex mucronate. Perianth segments lanceolate, 2.5--3 mm, margin scarious, apex acute to mucronate. Stamens 3, ca. 1.5 mm; anthers ovoid, shorter than filaments. Capsule trigonous ellipsoid, 3.5--4 mm, apex acute. Seeds obovoid, 0.6--1 mm.

* Taiwan.

The above description is based on the protologue because no material has been examined by the present authors. This species is similar to the North American Juncus canadensis J. Gay, but the seeds lack appendages at the ends.