Juncus acutiflorusEhrh. ex Hoffm.

sharp-flowered rushsharpflower rush

WFO wfo-0000775706 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. a Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-31 / obs. 147871589
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Olivier Argagnon
fig. b Olivier Argagnon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148302652
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. c Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140193777
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam
fig. d Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 96314343
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. e Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 87285979
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. f Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 50817188
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. g Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 48847892
Juncus acutiflorus, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. h Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 34269734

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 29 botanical countries

Regions where Juncus acutiflorus is native: Morocco, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine MoroccoIraqLebanon-SyriaAlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyGreeceIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwitzerlandUkraine BalearesFøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Juncus acutiflorus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Iraq IRQ ASIA-TEMPERATE
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Morocco MOR AFRICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 390 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -4.7 °C 0.9 °C 4.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 16.6 °C 20.8 °C 26.7 °C
Annual rainfall 650 mm 925 mm 1,859 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 83 mm 172 mm 324 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 390 research-grade observations of Juncus acutiflorus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 55 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Juncus acutiflorus subsp. genuinus (Cout.) Cout.
  • Juncus acutiflorus subsp. multiflorus Asch. & Graebn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus unranked coarctatus G.Mey.
  • Juncus acutiflorus unranked effusus G.Mey.
  • Juncus acutiflorus unranked rufus Asch. & Graebn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus unranked wulfenii Asch. & Graebn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. brevirostris (Nees) Bluff
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. divaricatus Fr.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. exoletus Rchb.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. fluitans Hartm.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. genuinus Cout.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. hagenbachianus Gaudin
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. laxus Spenn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. macrocephalus (W.D.J.Koch) Lange
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. microcephalus Husn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. microcephalus Rchb.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. minor J.Gay ex Laharpe
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. multiflorus Weihe ex Spenn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. multiflorus Weihe ex Boenn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. nemorosus Wimm. & Grab.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. pauciflorus Spenn.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. pratensis Wimm. & Grab.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. proliferus Hartm.
  • Juncus acutiflorus var. repens J.Gay ex Laharpe

and 31 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.