Flora of North America species comparison

arching to spreading, 5–31 cm, smooth or scabrous distally;

bases (remnants of old leaves) weakly or not at all fibrous.

20–100 cm;

vegetative culms with few leaves clustered at apex.

blades pale green, shorter to longer than culms, 0.9–2.6(–3.2) mm wide, herbaceous, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially.

sheath summits U-shaped;

distal ligules 2.3–4.8 mm;

blades 3–5 per fertile culm, 10–32 cm × 1.4–3(–3.5) mm.

with both staminate and pistillate spikes;

peduncles of basal spikes slender, elongate, erect;

peduncles of distal spikes 0.6–4(–10) mm;

proximal nonbasal bracts leaflike, equaling or exceeding inflorescences.

arching or nodding, dense or open, green, yellow, or brown at maturity, 1.5–6 cm × 5–20 mm;

proximal internode 2–12 mm; 2d internode 2–13 mm;

proximal bracts scalelike, with bristle tip.

pistillate spikes 1–4 (basal spikes 0–2);

cauline spikes overlapping, separated by less than 7 mm, with 4–15 perigynia;

distal staminate spikes 3.1–11.3 × 0.7–2.7 mm.

3–10, distinct, ellipsoid, 7–16 × 3–9(–13) mm, base acute to short-attenuate, apex acute to rounded.

yellowish green to grayish green, veinless, globose to obovoid, 2.3–3.1 × 1–1.4 mm, as long as or longer than wide;

beak often bent, pale green, occasionally with reddish brown tinge, 0.4–0.8 mm, ciliate-serrulate, apical teeth 0.1–0.2 mm.

ascending or rarely widely spreading, golden brown, conspicuously 5-veined on each face or fewer adaxially, winged to base, lanceolate, flat except over achene, 4.2–6.8 × 1.2–2 mm, length at least 3 times width, 0.35–0.55 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.2–0.6 mm wide;

beak pale to golden-brown at tip, flattish, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture with white or golden brown hyaline margin, distance from beak tip to achene 2.2–4.8 mm.

brown, obovoid, obtusely trigonous in cross section, 1.3–1.6 × 1–1.4 mm.

ovate or elliptic, 1.3–1.7 × 0.7–0.9 mm, 0.3–0.4 mm thick.

pistillate scales pale to dark reddish brown, with narrow to broad white margins, ovate, 2–2.8 × 1–1.8 mm, shorter than perigynia, apex obutse, acute, or acuminate (cuspidate on some basal spikes); staminate scales ovate, 2.4–4 × 1–1.9 mm, apex acute to acuminate.

1.2–2.5 mm.

3.

scales hyaline brown, occasionally with green or gold midstripe, lanceolate, 3.4–4 mm, shorter and narrower than perigynia, apex acuminate.