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Juncus falcatus; photograph (c) Nina Kerr, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Nina Kerr, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-06

Juncus falcatus E.Mey.

Falcate rush; Sickle-leaved rush; Sickle-leaf rush

Juncaceae · New South Wales, Tasmania +7

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Juncus falcatus, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Juncus falcatus, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Juncus falcatus, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Juncus falcatus, photograph (c) Corin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Juncus falcatus, photograph (c) Corin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Juncus falcatus, photograph (c) Gail A Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) 65 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.2°C
Record low -6.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
21°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
922mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (688 mm of 949 mm) takes 8 months, February and June to December. Mean temperature moves 13.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: December to June and August.

Rain

949 mm in the median year at the habitat, 688 mm of it February and June to December. Wettest month August at 96 mm, driest month April at 62 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 736 mm to 1,542 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 922 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 949 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.2 °C, the absolute minimum -6.3 °C, 2,712 frost nights in 44 years, 61.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -0.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -3.2 °C to 1.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 21.2 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -70 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Juncus falcatus through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 21 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -0.8 °C; 949 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost30.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-6.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–46RH 56–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 312 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 16–2321 / 17–2318 / 14–2014 / 11–1610 / 7–137 / 4–106 / 3–97 / 4–1110 / 7–1413 / 10–1616 / 13–1919 / 15–21
Night °C10 / 7–1210 / 7–128 / 5–105 / 3–72 / 0–50 / -2–3-1 / -3–20 / -3–21 / -1–43 / 1–66 / 4–98 / 5–11
Rain mm68 / 53–9669 / 45–9163 / 48–9362 / 47–9568 / 52–11889 / 64–15990 / 57–16196 / 54–18584 / 56–15387 / 64–14991 / 66–12682 / 64–120
DLI46 / 42–4840 / 36–4233 / 28–3524 / 18–2516 / 12–1813 / 9–1514 / 10–1620 / 15–2328 / 23–3036 / 32–3842 / 39–4345 / 42–48
RH %56 / 55–6158 / 56–6259 / 57–6361 / 60–6564 / 62–6766 / 63–6966 / 62–7065 / 60–6862 / 59–6559 / 57–6259 / 57–6257 / 56–61

Records on both sides of the equator: the 119 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 312 cells that remain: the 312 at least 10° south.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 312 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (567 records in those cells; 8 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2515:6579 (-35.775, 148.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 312 distinct grid cells holding 567 of the 766 in-range records (8 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (119 cells poleward of 10° north, 312 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2515:6579 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -36.00_148.750, lapse-corrected -70 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1129 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Aleutian Is., Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-36.434, 148.356 · in the densest population, 436 records (46% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 948 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 567 of them in the land cells it reads, of 766 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 785 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 182 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 948 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Juncus falcatus, photograph 1did not loadJuncus falcatus, photograph 2did not loadJuncus falcatus, photograph 3did not loadJuncus falcatus, photograph 4did not loadJuncus falcatus, photograph 5did not loadJuncus falcatus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Corin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Gail A Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Eucalyptus perriniana Eucalyptus perriniana Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Hilary Rose Dawson Plantago antarctica Plantaginaceae Wahlenbergia gloriosa Wahlenbergia gloriosa Royal bluebell Photo: CC BY-SA, Victor PhillipsCarex capillacea Carex capillacea Tiny sedge Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-BravoAcrothamnus maccraei Acrothamnus maccraei Subalpine Beard-heath Photo: CC BY, Bryce Watts-ParkerBaloskion australe Baloskion australe Mountain cord-rush Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Juncus 65 in the reference

Juncus acuminatus Juncus acuminatus Taper-tip rush Photo: CC BY, Ryan SorrellsJuncus acutiflorus Juncus acutiflorus Sharp-flowered rush Photo: CC BY, ahaboJuncus acutus Juncus acutus Sharp rush Photo: CC BY, Léo SouillardJuncus alpinoarticulatus Juncus alpinoarticulatus Alpine rush Photo: CC BY, Natalia KazakovaJuncus arcticus Juncus arcticus Arctic rush Photo: CC BY, Ida B D JacobsenJuncus articulatus Juncus articulatus Jointed rush Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantJuncus balticus Juncus balticus Baltic rush Photo: CC BY, Arthur WhitingJuncus biflorus Juncus biflorus Two-flowered rush Photo: CC BY, Lauren McLaurinJuncus bolanderi Juncus bolanderi Bolander's rush Photo: CC BY, Aaron ListonJuncus breweri Juncus breweri Brewer's rush Photo: CC BY, hyphalrevivalJuncus bufonius Juncus bufonius Toad rush Photo: CC0, author not statedJuncus bulbosus Juncus bulbosus Bulbous rush Photo: CC0, author not stated all 66 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Juncus falcatus var. falcatus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Juncaceae
Described by
E.Mey.
Native to
New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria +6
Wild records
948 in range · 785 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 11 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 9 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -36.00_148.750, lapse-corrected -70 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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