{"id":263,"date":"2021-09-18T14:29:27","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T14:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=263"},"modified":"2021-09-18T15:10:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T15:10:09","slug":"dont-rush-take-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/herefordshire-recording\/dont-rush-take-the-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Rush – Take the Time…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Tips on telling blunt-flowered rush Juncus subnodulosus <\/em>from sharp-flowered rush Juncus acutiflorus<\/em>, which is much more common in Herefordshire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photo shows some differences in ‘jizz’. Sharp-flowered (L) has dark-chestnut perianths and capsules, blunt-flowered distinctly paler ones (though note much darker at fruition than at the very pale flowering and bud stages). Flower clusters are more slender and attenuated in sharp-flowered and blobby in blunt-flowered and the latter often has some branchlets directed vertically downwards. It is possible to convince yourself that you can see the diagnostic longitudinal septae of blunt-flowered when you are in fact looking at sharp-flowered because of the difficulty of splitting the leaf clearly. The longitudinal septae in blunt-flowered are very<\/span> clear and should look like this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Take the time to confirm, as in so many cases, with a x20 hand lens. (If you don’t have one, get one!!) The names are well-given and, as usual, Stella Ross-Craig (1906-2006) comes up with the goods. Here are her superb illustrations from Drawings of British Plants.<\/em> As in all rushes the flowers are like miniature tulips with six tepals (petals and sepals jointly adopting very similar shapes). Those of the blunt-flowered are blunt, those of the sharp-flowered sharp, gradually tapering to a narrow point which is reflexed outwards and even hooked-in in some and often all of the tepals. This last point is important as a third species, jointed rush Juncus articulatus <\/em>often resembles sharp-flowered rush even more than blunt-flowered rush. Perhaps subject for another post, but in a nutshell that is a lower growing plant with almost black tepals and fruit and rather less acutely-pointed tips which do not bend and hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Correct identification of blunt-flowered rush is especially important in Herefordshire as it is not only a rare plant with us but one of ecological significance: we lie squarely on the overlap of the M22 and M23 mire-types (probably with an unpublished variant of our own) and all records help us to evaluate the nuances of this situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tips on telling blunt-flowered rush Juncus subnodulosus from sharp-flowered rush Juncus acutiflorus, which is much more common in Herefordshire The photo shows some differences in ‘jizz’. Sharp-flowered (L) has dark-chestnut perianths and capsules, blunt-flowered distinctly paler ones (though note much … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuarthedley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}