Flora of North America species comparison

21–47 cm, smooth to weakly scabrous distally;

bases not fibrous.

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.

blades pale green, shorter than culms, 1–3.3 mm wide, herbaceous, papillose abaxially, scabrous adaxially.

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.

with both staminate and pistillate spikes;

peduncles of staminate spikes 0.4–2.2 mm;

proximal cauline bracts leaflike usually shorter than inflorescences.

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.

proximal pistillate spikes 2–3 (basal spikes 0);

cauline spikes with proximal 2 spikes overlapping, se!parated by less than 7 mm, with 3–10 perigynia; staminate spikes 5.3–8.6 × 0.8–1.7 mm.

light green, veinless, ellipsoid, 3.2–4.2 × 1.1–1.3 mm, longer than wide;

beak straight, pale green, 0.7–1 mm, ciliate-serrulate, apical teeth 0.2–0.4 mm.

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.

brown, obovoid to ellipsoid, obtusely trigonous in cross section, 1.9–2.4 × 1–1.3 mm.

substipitate, 2–2.6 × 1.2–1.7 mm.

pistillate scales reddish brown to pale brown, with broad white margins, ovate, 2.2–3.2 × 1.2–1.8 mm, 1/2 to 2/3 length of perigynia, apex acute to acuminate,; staminate scales elliptic, 2.4–3.2 × 0.9–1.8 mm, apex acute.

1.4–1.5 mm.

3.

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.

= 36.

= 50, 52.