Flora of North America species comparison

brown at base, densely covered with brown fibrillose remains of previous year’s leaves; flowering stems 30–90 cm, longer than leaves at maturity, 0.5–0.7 mm thick, glabrous but finely scabrous within inflorescence.

10–45 cm, smooth to scabrous distally;

bases (remnants of old leaves) slightly or not at all fibrous.

sheaths glabrous, basal ones tinged with brown and all bearing blades, green to hyaline on back, white-hyaline on front;

blades flat, 2.5–4 mm wide, finely scabrous on adaxial surface and margins, glabrous on abaxial surface.

blades pale to bright green, shorter to longer than culms, 0.8–2.5 mm wide, herbaceous, smooth to scabrous abaxially, papillose to scabrous adaxially.

peduncles of lateral spikes slender, 20–60 mm, equaling or somewhat longer than spikes, finely scabrous;

peduncle of terminal spike 5–15 mm, scabrous;

proximal bracts equaling inflorescences or more often shorter;

sheaths 3–5 mm or rarely longer;

blades 1–1.5 mm wide.

with both staminate and pistillate spikes;

peduncles of staminate spikes 0.4–9.9 mm;

proximal nonbasal bracts leaflike, shorter than inflorescences.

proximal pistillate spikes 1–4 (basal spikes 0);

cauline spikes overlapping, proximal 2 spikes usually separated by less than 7 mm, with 4–14 perigynia; staminate spikes 5–14 × 0.5–1.8 mm.

shiny tan to golden green, 2-ribbed, but otherwise veinless, closely enveloping achene at maturity, ovoid-ellipsoid, 4.5–6.5 × 1.5–2 mm, membranous, base acute, apex abruptly contracted to beak, glabrous;

beak bidentate, narrowly tubular, nearly as long as body, finely scabrous on edge, teeth hyaline, 1 mm.

pale green, veinless, ellipsoid, 2.3–3.3 × 0.8–1.2 mm, longer than wide;

beak straight, pale green, 0.6–1.1 mm, weakly ciliate-serrulate, apical teeth 0.1–0.4 mm.

substipitate, 2–2.5 × 1.7–1.8 mm.

brown, ellipsoid, acutely trigonous in cross section, 1.2–1.7 × 0.7–1.3 mm.

spikes 4–5, 1 per node;

proximal spikes well separated, nodding or drooping at maturity, pistillate with 10–40 perigynia about 1 mm apart, cylindric, 10–35 × 8–10 mm;

distal spikes crowded near apex, sessile or nearly so, staminate or androgynous, linear, less than 20 mm.

spike staminate or rarely with a few perigynia at base, 10–20 × 1.5–2 mm.

scales pale hyaline tinged with chestnut, narrow midrib green, sometimes finely scabrous, ovate-oblong, shorter than mature perigynia, apex long-acuminate, glabrous.

pistillate scales pale to dark reddish brown, with narrow white margins, lanceolate to ovate or obovate, 2.2–3.4 × 0.4–1.8 mm, equaling or exceeding perigynia, apex usually acuminate, sometimes acute or mucronate; staminate scales lanceolate to ovate, 2.8–6 × 0.6–1.9 mm, apex acute to acuminate.

1.5–2.7 mm.

3.

= 42.