Lygodesmia juncea(Pursh) Sweet

rush skeletonplant

WFO wfo-0000041463 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Robert Hoard
fig. a Robert Hoard, CC0 1.0 / 2021-11-01 / obs. 166856908
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Tait Sougstad
fig. b Tait Sougstad, CC0 1.0 / obs. 162165154
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Robert Hoard
fig. c Robert Hoard, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153907209
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by dghjertaas
fig. d dghjertaas, CC0 1.0 / obs. 165833007
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Kathlin Simpkins
fig. e Kathlin Simpkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148148408
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. f Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146219259
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. g Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146268971
Lygodesmia juncea, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. h Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 158475227

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 25 botanical countries

Regions where Lygodesmia juncea is native: Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaArkansasBritish ColumbiaColoradoIdahoIndianaIowaKansasManitobaMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOklahomaSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahWashingtonWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Lygodesmia juncea, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Manitoba MAN
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Oklahoma OKL
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

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.

Flowering 205 in flower of 233 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Lygodesmia juncea observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 205 of 233 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 3 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.

  • Lygodesmia juncea var. juncea
  • Lygodesmia juncea var. racemosa Lunell
  • Prenanthes juncea Pursh

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.