|
| Toad Rush; Juncus bufonius L. |
Rush Family; JUNCACEÆ
|
| Toad Rush delights in wet soil, the kind that not only tests your strength, but gurgles and slurps when you try shoveling it. Such
soil often supports a plant layer of bright green liverworts, lady fern, dwarf fireweed, and other muck-tolerant vegetation. Toad Rush,
in contrast, is notably dark green or even bronze-tinged. Gardeners cursed with this sort of poorly-drained, soggy soil, will rue
their numerous choice ornamentals sulking or dying in such inhospitable conditions, while certain weeds smugly thrive. |
| Toad Rush is native in our area; indeed it ranges across most of North America and Europe. It is a miniature cousin of
Common Rush (Weed-of-the-month March 1991). Its name
bufonius is from Latin bufo, toad. Linnaeus named it so in 1753, reportedly
because of its occurrence in damp places. But numerous other rushes all thrive in wet ditches, so there may be another explanation. I
don't know. |
| Unlike most of its rush and sedge relatives, Toad Rush is an annual: it dies completely in winter. A wispy little thing, it is
usually only 3 to 8 inches, rarely 14 inches tall, with minutely slender, squeezed, grassy leaves. Such blossoms as it produces are
borne abundantly, from May until October, mostly during June and July. |
| Controlling this pest entails much tedious work attacking the population before seeds are ripened, or, ultimately better
still: amending and ærating your soil to improve its tilth. Add organic matter, raise your planting-beds, loosen the soil --if it ever
dries-out enough to be worked. |
| If Toad Rush has any special uses for humankind, other than serving as an indicator species of poorly-drained ground,
I'm unaware of them. Larger, perennial rushes related to it are very useful to us. |
Several other rushes are occasional weeds in moist garden soil, the most common being
J. ensifolius the Narrowleaf Rush, that looks like a miniature
Iris except with microscopic, dingy brown flowers.
|
Originally published as the Seattle Tilth newsletter Weed of the Month in January 1994, along with an illustration from a book.
Back |
|
|
