Flora of North America species comparison

20–150 cm.

uniformly slender, 40–80 cm;

vegetative culms few, inconspicuous, usually fewer than 15 leaves, not strikingly 3-ranked.

basal sheaths red-brown or brown;

sheaths of proximal leaves glabrous, fronts with indistinct spots, veinless, apex U-shaped;

blades usually amphi-stomic, papillose on both surfaces.

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

distal ligules 1.6–3.3 mm;

blades 2–5 per fertile culm, 12–18 cm × 1.5–2.5 mm.

proximal bract longer than inflorescence.

stiffly erect, dense to slightly open, brown, 1.5–3(–3.5) cm × 6–14 mm;

proximal internode 2–12 mm; 2d internode 2–7 mm;

proximal bracts scalelike, often with bristletips shorter than or equaling inflorescences.

erect;

proximal 2–6 spikes pistillate;

terminal (1–)2–4 spikes staminate.

2–5, distant, distinct, ovoid, 7–12 × 4–7 mm, base rounded or short-acute, apex acute.

ascending, veinless, somewhat flattened, loosely enclosing achenes, ellipsoid or obovoid, dull, apex obtuse or acute, papillose.

15–80 in larger spikes, appressed, usually golden brown, conspicuously 6–9-veined abaxially, inconspicuously veined adaxially, diamond shaped, flat except over achene, 4–5 × 2–2.8 mm, 0.4–0.5 mm thick, base subacute or acute, margin flat, including wing 0.6–0.9 mm wide, smooth;

beak apprressed, golden brown at tip, flat, 0.7–1.6(–1.8) mm, 2/5+ length of body, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture with hyaline, golden brown margin, distance from beak tip to achene 2–3 mm.

not constricted, glossy.

elliptic to ovate, 1.5–1.7 × 0.8–1.1 mm, 0.3–0.4 mm thick.

scales red-brown to purple-brown, apex obtuse or acute, awnless.

scales reddish brown, 1-veined midstripe sometimes pale, broadly lanceolate, 2.7–3.6 mm, shorter and narrower than perigynia, apex firm, acute to acuminate.

= 72–80.

= 72.