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.

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

to 400 cm × 4 mm, scabrous.

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.

sheath fronts spotted red-brown, plane, apex truncate or concave;

ligule rounded, to 1 mm, free limb to 0.2 mm;

blades 15 cm × 5 mm, shorter than flowering stem.

elongate, 0.9–4 cm;

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

loosely paniculate, 4–10 cm × 7–15 mm, the proximal branches distinctly separate;

bracts scalelike, dilated with wide hyaline edges and prominent midvein; the proximal bracts setaceous, prolonged to 10–15 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.

yellow-brown to dark brown, 5–11-veined abaxially, occasionally 3–5-veined adaxially, body ovate, 3–3.6 × 1.2–1.6 mm, base rounded or cordate, conspicuous corky tissue distending the perigynium;

beak chestnut brown, 0.6–1.5 mm, apex white-hyaline, deeply bidentate.

brown, ovate, 1.5 × 1 mm.

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

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

hyaline, pale brown with prominent white-hyaline margins, apex acute or obtuse.