Modest Juncus capitatus

I usually take dozens of photos of each plant knowing that some might not be in focus or just meh. I don't know what got into me to take literally three shots of this little thing here. Maybe because it looked like some dead weed already and I would not be able to get an ID for it? Or they all looked simply the same (not that it stopped me before). I have no idea.

But I did manage to ID it and it is an interesting weed.

Juncus capitatus

I was convinced that I have found seed pods after some very early spring flowers. The brownish colours and shape could indicate that.

But noooo... those are buds!
Nice misleading tactics little one. Very nice!
The flowers keep the very neutral colours. What you see here are basically petals and not a the little outside leaves that sometimes protect the delicate petals - see the graphics below.





The plant is very small. The ones I found were about 7 cm tall and that were the flower stems. Leaves are shorted and look like young grass - long and very thin.

It is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa. It is also an introduced species in parts of North America such as California and the Gulf Coast. It grows in moist areas, such as wet sand, vernal pools, and ditches.
It germinates in autumn and grows in places where water stands in winter and which dry up completely in summer,
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Yep, that's about right. You can see how sandy (almost pure sand) the soil is in that spot. And yet, they (and other weeds) were growing all over the place! It is a wild area close to the coastline and in winter and spring you can find large puddles there. If you remember from some other post not long ago I was showing an image if cracked soil. That's the same spot and all the cracks were the leftover from large poodle that was drying up slowly. Perfect spot for them then.

The flowers start to bloom around March in this area and the blooming lasts for a bout a month. Then the seeds are tossed around wand wait patiently for the rains to come.

Lastly a graphic of the plant from 1796 :). How cool it is that wikimedia has things like that.



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