Hairy wood-rush (Luzula pilosa)

Rush family (Juncaceae)

Evergreen perennial with short rhizomes, tussock-forming. Stem cylindrical, up to 10-30 cm long. Basal leaves flat, to 20 cm x 5-10 mm, margins with long, soft silvery hairs; stem leaves short and narrower, with hairs at bases. Flowers spread widely in umbel-like cymes, each flower on longish pedicel. Perianth segments 3-4 mm long, brown and lanceolate. Flowers Mar.-May.

Grows on moderately fertile or nutrient-poor soils in mesic or moist pine forests, mixed/coniferous forests, open oak woodland or tall oak-lime-hornbeam forest.

Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski