Juncaceae

Perennial or annual herbs, tufted or with an erect or creeping rhizome. Stems mostly leafy only at the base but sometimes also in the higher parts. Leaves spirally arranged, cylindric to flat and grass-like, mostly linear or filiform, sheathing at the base or entirely reduced to a sheath; sheaths open or closed, sometimes ciliate at the top. Flowers mostly proterogynous and anemophilous, solitary or in anthelas, panicles, corymbs or heads, usually small, actinomorphic, ♀ or (♂) (♀).Tepals 6, free, in two whorls, rarely only 3, glumaceous or coriaceous, rarely white. Stamens 3-6, when 3 opposite the outer tepals; filaments thin; anthers basifixed, introrse; cells opening longitudinally; pollen in tetrads. Ovary superior, 1-celled or divided by 3 septa into 3 cells; style short to long; stigmas 3, papillose; ovules 3, inserted at the base of the ovary or numerous and biseriate on 3 parietal placentas. Fruit a dry, 1- or 3-celled capsule, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds sometimes tailed; embryo in the middle or at the base of the endosperm, small. Distr. Genera 8, with 250-300 species, especially in the temperate and cold regions of both hemispheres; in the tropics restricted to the mountainous districts.