Flora of North America species comparison

to 80 cm × 3–8 mm, scabrous.

erect, straight, bluntly trigonous, 8–40 cm, smooth to slightly scabrous-angled distally.

sheath fronts not spotted, slightly thickened near hyaline margins, apex convex, membranous, rugose;

ligule retuse or rounded, to 3 mm, free limb to 0.2 mm;

blades 60 cm × 5 mm, shorter than flowering stem.

basal sheaths dark brown;

ligules 0.4–1.7 mm;

blades flat, shorter than culms, (1.5–)2–3.5(–4) mm wide.

spicate, 3–7 cm × 15–25 mm, with 10–15 branches, proximal branches not distinctly separate; the proximal internode to 10 mm;

bracts setaceous, usually only the proximal conspicuous.

0.8–1.6 cm;

spikes ca. 5–15, indistinguishable in dense, globose to ovoid head.

pale brown, body broadly ovate, 3.2–4 × 2–2.6 mm, base rounded or cordate, apex abruptly contracted to beak;

beak 1.3–1.5 mm, 1/3 length of perigynium.

pale yellowish brown proximally, reddish brown to blackish distally and on beak, finely 5–9-veined abaxially, faintly veined or essentially veinless adaxially, flattened, not inflated, narrowly to broadly elliptic, 3.3–4.6 × 1.1–1.9 mm, membranous, shiny;

stipe 0.2–0.6 mm;

beak well defined, 0.9–1.5 mm, smooth-margined.

brown, ovate, 1.5–1.9 × 1.2–1.6 mm, dull.

hyaline, pale brown, becoming colorless with green midrib, awn usually not longer than the body.

scales reddish brown to blackish, ± translucent, lacking whitish hyaline margins, ovate, ± equaling perigynia, apex acute to acuminate, body shiny.

1.5–2.8 mm.