Stiffly erect perennial, (20-) 30-60 (-90) cm tall, caespitose or tufted, grey-green, with creeping, somewhat woody rootstock; stem 1-1.5 mm thick above, with interrupted pith. Leaves basal only; sheaths glossy brownish to blackish, broad, blade-less to with blade, 4-10 (-15) cm long, pale, obtuse to acute. Inflorescence seemingly lateral. 2.5-10 cm long, paniculate, with unequal, often forking branches, nodding; lower bract erect, abbreviated to much elongated, looking like the extension of culm, sharply pointed. Flowers (2.5-) 3-4 mm long, greenish; perianth segments lanceolate. subulate pointed, apices unequal, inner shorter. Stamens 6, included; anthers c. as long as the filaments. Capsules ovoid-acuminate, shortly beaked, shining brown, equalling to slightly exceeding the perianth, many-seeded; seeds c. 0.5 mm long, ovoid, brownish hardly appendaged.

Type: Described from southern Europe.

Distribution: Most of Europe and Asia, N.Africa; introduced elsewhere.

A common species of wet places in the hilly parts of Pakistan. It is easily distinguished from the previous species by its leaves not spine-tipped and each individual flower subtended at the base by a pair of short bracteoles.

Some forms of this species have been mistaken for Juncus effusus L. (R.R.Stewart, l.c. 40), a species of N.Temperate zone, India (?) (Sikkim to Khasia) eastwards to Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. It is distinguished by its obovoid capsules, emarginate at tip, about as long as the perianth, flowers smaller and often only with 3 stamens.