''Juncus prismatocarpus'', the branching rush, is a tufted,

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the rush family,

Juncaceae Juncaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the rush family. It consists of 8 genera and about 464 known species of slow-growing, rhizomatous, herbaceous monocotyledonous plants that may superficially resemble grasses and ...

. Found in moist situations, often on sandy ground. Grass-like leaves are 10 to 40 cm long, 1.3 to 3.0 mm in diameter. It grows in many parts of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and south east Asia. The specific epithet is derived from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, meaning

prism PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet ...

-shaped fruit. Due to its flattened unifacial leaves lacking adaxial identity, ''Juncus prismatocarpus'' has been used to study leaf development and faciality.Yin, X. and Tsukaya, H. (2019), Morphogenesis of flattened unifacial leaves in Juncus prismatocarpus (Juncaceae). New Phytol, 222: 1101-1111. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15649

References

prismatocarpus Plants described in 1810 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of South Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of Tasmania Flora of New Zealand Flora of China Flora of Japan {{Poales-stub