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Juncus
caesariensis (New Jersey rush)
Photo
courtesy the Illustrated Companion
to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual:Illustrations of the Vascular Plants
of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada by Noel Holmgren.
1998, New York Botanical Garden.
NEW JERSEY RUSH
Juncus
caesariensis
Coville New Jersey Rush
TAXONOMY
The New Jersey Rush was named by Coville in 1894 in the Memoirs of the
Torrey
Botanical Club 5(8): 106. It replaced a preoccupied or illegitimate
name Juncus asper.
NJ NATURAL HERITAGE PROGRAM
New Jersey Rush is listed in by the Natural Heritage Program as a 02,
S2, Endangered
species in NJ and Listed as Protected in the Pinelands. The Nature
Heritage Program
states that the recorded range for Juncus caesariensis is the Atlantic
Coastal Plain in New
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia and is disjunct to Cape Breton Island,
Nova Scotia.
Kartesz indicates that the species is also found in North Carolina. The
Committee on the
Status of Endangered Wildlife In Canada (COSEWIC) published a
Assessment and
Update Status Report on the New Jersey Rush in Canada and state that
New Jersey Rush
is found along the periphery of 25 bogs and fens of southeastern Cape
Breton Island,
Nova Scotia and that the Canadian population is estimated at 5,000 to
10,000 plants that
comprise a large proportion of the global population. The 1990 Element
Stewardship
Abstract for Juncus caesariensis states that in New Jersey there are
approximately 20
extant occurrences with some 35 additional historical occurrences. New
locations are
offsetting some of the losses from historic sites.
DESCRIPTION OF PLANT
This species is a perennial tufted rhizomatous herb with erect stems
having narrow
elongate sheathing leaves and terminated by a branched inflorescence
with clusters of
minute flowers. Culms are I-few in tufts from short (rarely elongate)
rhizomes, rigid, up
to 0.9 meters tall. Leaves have blades that are terete, conspicuously
septate, scabrous,
lower up to 30 cm long and the upper much shorter. Inflorescences are
up to 17 cm long
with greatly overtopping short involucral bracts (up to 2 cm long) with
strongly
ascending to divaricate branches. Heads are turbinate or hemispherical
and about 1 cm
wide with 2-10 flowers. Spikelets are 5-6mm long with sepals and petals
similar,
narrowly elliptic and tapering to an acute tip. Seeds are 2-3 mm long,
subcylindric to
narrowly elliptic with long white to reddish tails.
Juncus caesariensis resembles four other species that have similar
appearing heads,
septate leaves and tailed seeds: J.
canadensis, J. subcaudatus, J.
brevicaudatus and J.
brachycephalus.
It
is easily distinguished from these species by its 1)
scabrous vs.
smooth leaves and culms, 2) 6 instead of3 stamens, and 3) larger seeds
that are 2 mm or
more long.
HABITAT
This species grows in sphagnous bogs and swamps, often with or in close
proximity to
Alnus
serrulata (Ait.)
Willd. Brookside Alder, Chamaecyparis
thyoides (L.) B.S.P.
Atlantic White-Cedar, and Magnolia
virginiana L. Sweet-Bay. Most of the
New Jersey
sites are in the Pinelands on wet sandy peaty substrate dominated by
Sphagnum. The
plants are frequently found in open or somewhat shaded places in or
near white cedar
swamps. A few sites are in areas disturbed by humans: ditches along
railroad tracks,
borders of channelized streams, thickets in powerline openings and
logged cedar swamps.
Associated herbs listed forNew Jersey sites include: Asclepias rubra L.
Red Milkweed,
Oclemena
nemoralis
(Ait.) Greene Bog Nodding-Aster, Calamovilfa
brevipilis (Torr.)
Scribn. Pine-Barren Sand-Reed, Drosera
intermedia Hayne Spoon-Leaf
Sundew,
Lophiola
aurea
Ker-Gawl. Goldencrest, Narthecium
americanum Ker-Gawl.
Yellow
Asphodel, Platanthera
cristata
(Michx.) Lindl. Crested Yellow Orchid, Rhynchospora
cephalantha
Gray
Bunched Beak Sedge, Sabatia
difformis
(L.) Druce
Lance-Leaf
Rose-Gentian, and Vaccinium
macrocarpon Ait. Large Cranberry
BIOLOGY/ECOLOGY
This species in New Jersey fruits from July to October. Pollen transfer
in by wind
(anemophily). The relative amount of self- versus cross-pollination is
not known. It is
often locally abundant with numerous scattered culms at sites in the
Pinelands.
Although seed production seems high, seedlings have rarely been found
at field sites.
The effect of shading and succession needs to be determined.
POPULATION QUALITY
There are approximately 20 extant occurrences in New Jersey as of 1990.
Most of the
sites are in the Pinelands and appear secure. These populations, some
with thousands of
individuals, are scattered over a seven-county area and occur with
other characteristic
wetland species of the Pinelands.
THREATS
The greatest threat is disruption of the water regime. Anything that
substantially alters
water flow from seeps will eliminate it. Succession is a potential
threat although more
information is needed on how vulnerable the habitat is to it.
Development is a threat to
those sites outside the pinelands.
MONITORING
More accurate distributional data is needed for extant and historic
sites. Fluctuations in
population sizes and whether the plants are culm-bearing or vegetative
is needed.
MANAGEMENT
Watersheds are critical to the protection of this species. Disruptions
of the water regime
will eliminate it.
Note: Most of this information was taken from the Element Stewardship
Abstract that is
available on the internet at.
http://www.state.ni.us/dep/parksandforests/natural/heritage/textfiles/icaesar.txt
Bill Olson
Botanical Consultant
1005 Lakewood Farmingdale Road
Howell, New Jersey 07731
732 961 1946
wolson3@optonline.com
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Title Design by Elayne A.
Leighton -
e.a.leighton@worldnet.att.net
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