A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

junceus,-a,-um (adj.A), juncaceus,-a,-um (adj.A): juncous, junceous, rush-like, like the genus Juncus; made of rushes; slender; cf. fistulosus,-a,-um (adj.A), fistulose, fistular, i.e. hollow throughout, like a pipe, but closed at ends; the adj. may resemble or be associated with ‘junceus,’ rush-like, in the hollow stems of Juncus species [> L. junceus,-a,-um (adj.A): made of rushes; like a rush; slim, slender (Lewis & Short) [> L. juncus,-i (s.m.II), q.v.].

NOTE: the adj., ‘rush-like’ may indicate the smallness (i.e. reduced to scales), remoteness or scarcity of leaves on a slender rather stiff branch or stem.

- [Carmichaelia] frutices v. arbores parvae, per anthesin saepius aphyllae, ramis junceis v. complanatis, squamulis ad nodos minutis (S&D), shrubs or small trees, throughout the flowering period more often aphyllous, with the branches rush-like [i.e. slender] or complanate, with minute little scales at the nodes.

- [Notospartium] arbor parva, per anthesin aphylla, ramis junceis pendulis aphyllis (B&H), a small tree, throughout flowering lacking leaves, with the branches rush-like, pendulous, without leaves.

- Scorodoprasa [pl.of scoroprasum] foliis junceis, seu teretibus plerumque fistulosis (Mich.), Scoroprasa with rush-like leaves, or rounded-cylindric, usually fistulose [i.e. a terete body that is also hollow].

- herbae suffruticesve saepius glabrae, ramis erectis junceis v. complanatis (B&H), herbs somewhat shrubby [i.e. woody] more often glabrous, with branches erect, rush-like or complanate.

- gregaria, subcaespitosa, fistulosa, longissima, juncea, subfiliformis, exacte teres, erecta (S&A), [fungus] gregarious, almost sod-forming, hollow, very long, rush-like, almost filiform, strictly terete, erect.

- [Spartium] frutex, ramis junceis, foliis raris 1-foliolatis (B&H), a shrub with branches [rush-like, slender; with the leaves distant, 1-foliolate.

NOTE: the genus Juncus is characterized by plants growing in wet or dry open soil or water “with pithy or hollow and simple (rarely branching) stems, [with] glabrous narrow to filiform leaves” (Fernald 1950).

Solidago juncea “stiff, like a rush” (Fernald 1950); Spartium junceum, Spanish Broom (Genisteae), a small shrub with slender, succulent rush-like shoots bearing small, sparse deciuous leave; photosynthesis in the green shoots; Brassica juncea (L.) Cosson “rush-like, probably from its slender habit” (Fernald 1950).