Juncus pelocarpusE.Mey.

brownfruit rush

WFO wfo-0000777046 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. a Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-09 / obs. 156976053
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. b Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150687234
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. c Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 52906933
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. d Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203551081
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Chase Mathey
fig. e Chase Mathey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160453396
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Chris Hoess
fig. f Chris Hoess, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 149935446
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Mike Zifkin
fig. g Mike Zifkin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 97581008
Juncus pelocarpus, photographed by Ian Manning
fig. h Ian Manning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96052071

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 30 botanical countries

Regions where Juncus pelocarpus is native: Alabama, British Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Labrador, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaBritish ColumbiaConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIndianaLabradorMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSouth CarolinaVermontVirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Juncus pelocarpus, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Indiana INI
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
Wisconsin WIS

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 286 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -17.2 °C -12.9 °C -0.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.5 °C 23.5 °C 29.2 °C
Annual rainfall 764 mm 1,073 mm 1,570 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 80 mm 209 mm 330 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 286 research-grade observations of Juncus pelocarpus 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 10 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 abortivus Chapm.
  • Juncus articulatus var. pelocarpus (E.Mey.) A.Gray
  • Juncus conradii Tuck.
  • Juncus muehlenbergii Spreng.
  • Juncus pelocarpus f. pelocarpus
  • Juncus pelocarpus f. submersus Fassett
  • Juncus pelocarpus var. crassicaudex Engelm.
  • Juncus pelocarpus var. pelocarpus
  • Juncus pelocarpus var. sabulonensis H.St.John
  • Juncus viviparus Conrad

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.