Juncus castaneusSm.

chestnut rush

WFO wfo-0000776182 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Juncus castaneus, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. a Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-29 / obs. 147211659

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
2381072
Filed as
Juncus castaneus Sm.
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
G. R. Brassard
Origin
CA
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 52 botanical countries

Regions where Juncus castaneus is native: Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Austria, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, North European Russia, Norway, Romania, Svalbard, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alaska, Alberta, Aleutian Is., British Columbia, Colorado, Greenland, Labrador, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, Utah, Wyoming, Yukon AltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAustriaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaIcelandItalyNorth European RussiaNorwayRomaniaSvalbardSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaColoradoGreenlandLabradorManitobaMontanaNew MexicoNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanUtahWyomingYukon Korea
Native distribution of Juncus castaneus, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Aleutian Is. ALU
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
Montana MNT
New Mexico NWM
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
Utah UTA
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Austria AUT EUROPE
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Great Britain GRB
Iceland ICE
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Romania ROM
Svalbard SVA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Great Britain, Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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 202 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -33.4 °C -24.5 °C -10.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 8.9 °C 15.3 °C 20.6 °C
Annual rainfall 281 mm 592 mm 1,839 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 15 mm 71 mm 288 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 202 research-grade observations of Juncus castaneus 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 14 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 castaneus f. pallidus (Buchenau) B.Boivin
  • Juncus castaneus var. castaneus
  • Juncus castaneus var. czetzii (Schur) Nyman
  • Juncus castaneus var. fuscus Nakai
  • Juncus castaneus var. koreanus Ohwi
  • Juncus castaneus var. pallidus B.Boivin
  • Juncus castaneus var. pallidus Buchenau
  • Juncus czetzii Schur
  • Juncus leucochlamys V.J.Zinger ex V.I.Krecz.
  • Juncus leucochlamys subsp. borealis (Tolm.) Novikov
  • Juncus leucochlamys var. borealis Tolm.
  • Juncus satakei Kitag.
  • Juncus triceps Rostk.
  • Juncus triceps var. koreanus (Ohwi) Satake

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.