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.

30–100 cm;

vegetative culms few, inconspicuous, with fewer than 15(–17) leaves, not strikingly 3-ranked.

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.

sheaths adaxially white-hyaline, summits U-shaped to truncate, sometimes prolonged 1–2 mm beyond collar, not puckered, finely papillose;

distal ligules 2.5–4.8 mm;

blades 3–6 per fertile culm, 14–32 cm × 1.5–3 mm.

elongate, 0.9–4 cm;

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

compact to open, occasionally elongate and arching or nodding, reddish brown or straw colored, 1.5–5 cm × 7–15 mm;

proximal internode 5–15 mm; 2d internode 3–7 mm;

proximal bracts scalelike with bristle tips shorter than inflorescences.

(4–)6–8(–10), distinct, ovoid, 7–15 × 5–9 mm, base rounded, apex rounded or nearly acute.

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.

15–80 in larger spikes, ascending, light green to straw colored, conspicuously 5–9-veined abaxially, veinless or faintly 1–5-veined adaxially, broadly ovate to ovate-orbiculate, plano-convex, 3.3–5 × 2.3–3.5 mm, 0.5–0.8 mm thick, irregular, margin flat, including wing 0.4–0.8 mm wide, with 1–2 veins in yellowish wing, smooth;

beak red-brown at tip, flat, 0.7–1.6(–1.8) mm, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture ± conspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 1.8–3.1 mm.

ovate or orbiculate, 1.4–1.8 × 1.1–1.5 mm, 0.5–0.7 mm thick.

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

scales light yellow-brown with paler midvein, lance-subulate or lanceolate, occasionally broadly lanceolate, (3.2–)3.4–3.8(–4.2) mm, 0.2–1.3 mm shorter than perignyium beaks, narrower than perigynia, margins white-hyaline, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, apex acute.

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

1.3–2.6 mm.

= 70, 74.