Plant · P-978

Basket Rush

Juncus effusus

Basket Rush is a clump-forming, evergreen wetland perennial with smooth, cylindrical, leafless stems that grow upright in dense rounded tufts. Its pliable stems have been used for centuries in basketry, matting and thatching, and the peeled pith was traditionally soaked in oil and burned as a rushlight candle. It spreads readily by rhizome and self-sown seed in consistently wet ground, thriving at pond edges, in rain gardens and in standing water a few inches deep. It tolerates neutral to mildly alkaline soil in the pH 6 to 8 range.