Juncus maritimusLam.

sea rush

WFO wfo-0000776856 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Juncus maritimus, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. a Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-23 / obs. 165164186
Juncus maritimus, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. b Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 161228651
Juncus maritimus, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. c Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187559245
Juncus maritimus, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. d Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148689922
Juncus maritimus, photographed by Michel Langeveld
fig. e Michel Langeveld, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145616780
Juncus maritimus, photographed by pete_gateley
fig. f pete_gateley, CC0 1.0 / obs. 142655082
Juncus maritimus, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. g Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130462364
Juncus maritimus, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. h Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115305889

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 41 botanical countries

Regions where Juncus maritimus is native: Azores, Canary Is., Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Netherlands, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.IranLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanIndiaAlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCorseDenmarkFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyKritiKrymNetherlandsNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwedenTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresCanary Is.BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Juncus maritimus, 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
Denmark DEN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Azores AZO AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL

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 891 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -3.1 °C 4.2 °C 10.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.7 °C 23.6 °C 29.0 °C
Annual rainfall 429 mm 806 mm 1,690 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 17 mm 137 mm 209 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 891 research-grade observations of Juncus maritimus 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 13 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 broteri Steud.
  • Juncus maritimus unranked ponticus (Steven) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Juncus maritimus var. atlanticus J.W.White
  • Juncus maritimus var. congestus L.B.Hall
  • Juncus maritimus var. contractus Trémols ex Cadevall
  • Juncus maritimus var. luxurians Lojac.
  • Juncus maritimus var. nervatus Lojac.
  • Juncus maritimus var. ponticus (Steven) Nyman
  • Juncus paui Sennen
  • Juncus ponticus Steven
  • Juncus pseudacutus Pau
  • Juncus spinosus var. congestus (L.B.Hall) Druce
  • Schoenus coarctatus Seenus

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.