Flora of North America species comparison

0.8–1.9 mm thick, shoots often arising 2–several per cluster, many nodes without shoots.

30–140 cm.

bluntly trigonous, (8–)15–40 cm, smooth-angled distally.

sheaths adaxially conspicuously green-veined nearly to collar, narrow hyaline band or sharp Y-shaped region at collar, adaxially firm, sometimes papillose, summits U-shaped;

distal ligules 2.8–8 mm;

blades 3–7 per fertile culm, 11–50 cm × 2.5–6 mm.

basal sheaths pale to dark brown;

sheaths with hyaline inner band, apex not prolonged, glabrous;

ligules 0–2.8 mm;

blades 1–3(–3.5) mm wide.

dense or open, pale green or brown, 2–6.5 cm × 7–20 mm;

proximal internode 3–13 mm; 2d internode 4–10 mm;

proximal bracts scalelike with bristle tips shorter than inflorescences.

dense, headlike, 1.2–3.5(–4.5) cm, 1/2+ as wide as long (if pistillate);

spikes 6–20(–25), usually unisexual; staminate spikes lanceoloid; pistillate spikes ovoid.

3–11, distant, distinct, ellipsoid to ovoid, 6–20 × 4–9 mm, base rounded or short-acute, apex broadly acute to obtuse.

± spreading, light or golden brown, faintly 3–8-veined on each face, obovate, flat except over achene, 4–5.5 × 2.5–3.8 mm, 0.4–0.5 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.8–1.5 mm wide;

beak light brown at tip, flat, 0.85–2.2 mm, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture with light brown margin, distance from beak tip to achene 1.8–3 mm.

brown, essentially veinless, usually stipitate, ovate to broadly elliptic, ± plano-convex, (3–)3.5–4.2(–4.8) × 1.2–2.1 mm, dull;

beak (0.9–)1.2–1.9 mm, apex hyaline, friable, oblique or obscurely bidentulate.

oblong, 1.7–2 × 0.9–1.1 mm, 0.3–0.4 mm thick.

scales white-hyaline or tan, with green midstripe extending to tip, lanceolate, 2.8–3.5(–3.8) mm, shorter or longer and much narrower than perigynia, apex firm, acuminate or awned to 0.8 mm.

scales pale brown to ± whitish hyaline, hyaline margins, lanceolate to ovate, (4.3–)4.7–7.5 mm, apex acute to acuminate, satiny to ± dull.

(2.5–)2.8–3.9 mm, apiculus bristly (30X).

= 74.