Flora of North America species comparison

reddish brown to dark maroon at base; flowering stems 20–70 cm, much longer than leaves at maturity, 1–1.7 mm thick, glabrous or sparsely pilose.

25–95 cm;

vegetative culms numerous, conspicuous, with 15–35 leaves, 3-ranked.

basal sheaths reddish brown, bladeless, pilose;

others grading from dark red to green on back, tan-hyaline on front, reddish brown dotted and usually pubescent at apex;

blades flat, 3–12 mm wide, usually pilose, more densely so abaxially, margins ciliate.

sheaths with adaxial hyaline band, summits U-shaped, prolonged 0.4–1.6 mm beyond collar;

distal ligules 2–3.5 mm;

blades 4–7 per fertile culm, pleated, ± auriculate at collar, 9–20 cm × 1–2.7 mm.

peduncles of lateral spikes, when present, less than 10 mm, often pubescent;

proximal bracts usually shorter than inflorescence;

sheaths 5–50 mm;

blades 1.2–2 mm wide.

open or dense, light green to light brown, 1.3–4 cm × 8–12 mm;

proximal internode 2–9 mm; 2d internode 2–5 mm;

proximal bracts scalelike or with bristle tips to 3.7 cm.

2–4(–6), distant, distinct, clavate-ovoid, 6–18 × 6–12 mm, base attenuate on terminal spike, truncate on lateral spikes, apex rounded.

pale green, blotched with dark maroon at base, dark maroon-brown distally, 2-ribbed and finely veined with to 20 veins, most conspicuous near base, loosely enveloping achene, ellipsoid, 3.7–5.3 × 1–2.2 mm, membranous, base acute, apex narrowing to beak, body covered with long, appressed to spreading hairs;

beak bidentate, 1 mm.

widely spreading, green to pale brown, conspicuously 5–10-veined abaxially, conspicuously 3–7-veined adaxially, elliptic to nearly orbiculate, plano-convex to biconvex, (4–)4.5–6.6 × 2.2–3.5 mm, 0.6 mm thick, sometimes finely papillose, margin flat, including wing 0.8–1.3 mm wide;

beak white or pale brown at tip, flat, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture usually inconspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 2–3 mm.

substipitate, 2–2.6 × 1.2–1.7 mm.

narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 1.8–2.6 × 0.9–1.2 mm, 0.6 mm thick.

spikes 2–5, 1 per node, usually crowded toward apex and overlapping staminate spike, erect, sessile or pedunculate, pistillate with 20–40 perigynia attached less than 1 mm apart, cylindric, 12–40 × 4–11 mm.

spike staminate, rarely gynecandrous, sessile or very short-pedunculate, 8–30 × 2–5.5 mm.

scales reddish brown with narrow white-hyaline margins and green midrib, broadly ovate, shorter than mature perigynia, apex obtuse to short-cuspidate, often pubescent on midrib and awn, ciliate distally.

scales silvery white to pale brown, narrow green to brown midstripe, narrowly ovate, 2.3–3.8 mm, as long as and narrower than perigynia, apex obtuse to acute.

= 50, 52.

= 74.