Azorean woodrush
Luzula purpureosplendens
Family · Juncaceae · Harmless
The rush family plant endemic to the Azores and Madeira that covers damp banks and the edges of levadas and paths at altitude, with broad leaves fringed with long white hairs.
Uplands · Scrubland · Streams and ditches
Also known aspurple woodrush
How to tell it
A tussock twenty to sixty centimetres. Unlike true rushes, the leaves are flat and broad like a grass, and the margin bears long loose white hairs, visible against the light and the mark of the genus. The flowers are small, purplish brown and glossy, gathered in loose branches at the top.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. It is a Macaronesian endemic and part of the natural vegetation of damp high ground.
The law says
Endemic to the Azores and Madeira. Do not pick: endemic flora is protected in the archipelagos and collecting is prohibited outside authorised research.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.