Flora of North America species comparison

coarse, 1.8–3 mm thick, typically with long, unbranched segments from which shoots arise singly every few nodes.

3–22 cm, strongly scabrous distally;

bases (remnants of old leaves) fibrous.

sharply trigonous, (10–)25–80(–100) cm, scabrous-angled distally.

blades pale green, equaling or exceeding stems, 0.8–2.3 mm wide, coriaceous, glabrous abaxially, scabrous to papillose adaxially.

basal sheaths dark brown to nearly black;

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

ligules 0.6–2.6 mm;

blades 1–3(–3.5) mm wide.

with both staminate and pistillate spikes;

peduncles of basal spikes stout, usually short, erect;

peduncles of staminate spikes 1.1–8.8 mm;

proximal nonbasal bracts scalelike, usually equaling or shorter than inflorescences.

elongate, 0.9–4 cm;

spikes 5–18(–25), usually unisexual; staminate spikes lanceoloid; pistillate spikes ovoid.

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

cauline spikes overlapping or somewhat separated, with 5–15 perigynia; staminate spikes 6.9–16.9 × 1.4–2 mm.

pale green to yellowish brown, veinless or faintly to 6-veined near base, globose to obovoid or ellipsoid, round in cross section, 2.7–4 × 1.5–2 mm;

beak straight, pale green, not strongly 2-edged, 0.4–1 mm, ciliate-serrulate, apical teeth 0.2 mm.

brown to nearly black at maturity, essentially veinless, usually stipitate, ovate, plano-convex, (2.2–)2.6–3.7 × 1.2–1.9 mm, dull;

beak 0.7–1.2 mm, 1/4–1/2 length of body, apex ± hyaline, obscurely bidentate.

brown, globose to obovoid, round in cross section, 1.6–2.8 × 1.5–1.9 mm.

pistillate scales pale reddish brown with broad white margins, ovate, 3–4.3 × 1.5–1.8 mm, equaling perigynia, apex acute or cuspidate to acuminate; staminate scales lanceolate, 4.8–6.8 × 1.5–1.6 mm, apex acute to acuminate.

2–3.1 mm.

(1.8–)2.2–3.9 mm, apiculus bristly hairy (30X).

3.

scales straw colored to pale reddish brown, with hyaline margins, ovate, apex acute to acuminate-awned, dull to ± satiny.