Flora of New Zealand Series

Fls bisexual, or rarely unisexual and plants dioec., few or ∞ in terminal monochasial cymes, occ. condensed to a compact head, or fls rarely solitary. Tepals 6, in 2 whorls, glumaceous, often with membr. margins. Stamens free, in 2 whorls of 3, or with the inner whorl missing, or variable 3–6, attached to the base of the tepals; filaments free, anthers 2-celled, introrse, basifixed. Ovary superior, syncarpous, 1- or ± completely 3-locular; style 1, short, stigmas 3, brush-like. Fr. a 3-valved capsule opening loculicidally. Seeds 3 or ∞, often tailed at one or both ends. Annual or perennial herbs, tufted and grasslike, or with creeping sympodial rhizome. Stems us. simple, erect. Lvs mostly clustered at base of stem, glab. or sparsely hairy, sheathing at the base, lamina flat and grasslike, or laterally compressed, or channelled, or terete like the stem; or lvs reduced to scales only. Eight genera and c. 400 spp. chiefly in temperate regions, rare in the tropics and then only at high altitudes. Two genera, Juncus and Luzula, are cosmopolitan, the other six are confined to the Southern Hemisphere.

The family has been monographed by Buchenau in Engl. Bot. Jb. 12, 1890, 1–495 and in Pflanzenr. 25, 1906, 1–284, and also by Vierhapper in Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 15A, 1930, 192–224. A regional monograph is Barros, "Las Juncaceas de la Argentina, Chile y Uruguay" in Darwiniana 10, 1953, 279–460.

The seed fats of nine spp. of Juncus and five vars of Luzula were investigated by Morice (J. Sci. Food Agric. 18, 1967, 129–32). The seeds of the two genera were somewhat similar in fatty acid composition but were nevertheless distinguishable.

Each branchlet of the cymose infl. is subtended by a membr. floral bract, and, in addition, in section Genuini of Juncus and in Luzula, each fl. has 2 papery bractiets at the base.

Fig. 11. JUNCACEAE. Rostkovia : seed, × 10; young capsule with perianth and long bracts, × 2½. Marsippospermum : seed, × 10; young capsule with perianth and very short bract, × 2½. Juncus : young capsule with tepals and bracts; mature capsule open to show seeds, × 7½. Luzula : young capsule with tepals and bracts; mature capsule open to show seeds, × 7½. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X22]