| Author | Lamarck | |
| Distribution | Coastal Plain, Sandhills, and Piedmont; scarce in the low mountains and western Piedmont.
NY to MI and MO, south to southern FL and TX. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to locally common in the Coastal Plain, Sandhills, and lower Piedmont; rare to uncommon in the western Piedmont and southern mountains. | |
| Habitat | Moist to wet pine savannas and flatwoods, pocosin ecotones, blackwater streamheads, wet meadows, ditches, damp clearings. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting June-October. | |
| Identification | Needlepod Rush is similar in gestalt to several other species with an open inflorescence and round or hemispherical heads. Seeds lack pale tails, so that eliminates J. canadensis, J. brevicaudatus, and J. subcaudatus. Leaves are not flattened laterally, so that eliminates J. polycephalus and J. validus. From J. megacephalus, it differs in having exserted anthers (vs. included and shorter than tepals) and green-brown mature heads (vs. chestnut or reddish brown). | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Some authors do not recognize variations within J. scirpoides, but taxon editors do. The nominate variety occurs nearly statewide, but var. compositus is essentially limited to the Coastal Plain.
NOTE on Juncus: These "grasslike" or "sedgelike" plants occur in most habitats, especially where moist or wet. They can immediately be told from grasses and sedges by the presence of 6 tepals (petal-like) that surround the fruit. These tepals can be thought of as analogous to sepals and petals of, say, lilies or trilliums. Most species have brown, chestnut, or reddish tepals and dark brown fruits. The flowers occur in few- to many-flowered heads. Leaves are nearly all basal and round in cross-section. Stems are unbranched, except for the inflorescence. Fruits are termed capsules and contain many tiny seeds. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | Scirpus-like Rush | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
