Flora of North America species comparison

20–50 cm.

arching to spreading, 5–31 cm, smooth or scabrous distally;

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

sheaths adaxially white-hyaline, often cross-corrugated, summits U-shaped or rounded, sometimes prolonged to 2.5 mm beyond collar;

distal ligules 1–2.5(–3.5) mm;

blades 2–4(–7) per fertile culm, 8–25 cm × (2.5–)3–4 mm.

blades pale green, shorter to longer than culms, 0.9–2.6(–3.2) mm wide, herbaceous, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially.

dense, gold or brown, 1.3–3 cm × 12–20 mm;

proximal internode 0.5–3.9(–5) mm; 2d internode 1–3(–4) mm;

proximal bracts scalelike or bristlelike, shorter than inflorescences.

with both staminate and pistillate spikes;

peduncles of basal spikes slender, elongate, erect;

peduncles of distal spikes 0.6–4(–10) mm;

proximal nonbasal bracts leaflike, equaling or exceeding inflorescences.

3–8, usually distinct, broadly ovoid, 9–12 × 6–9 mm, base rounded to attenuate, apex rounded.

pistillate spikes 1–4 (basal spikes 0–2);

cauline spikes overlapping, separated by less than 7 mm, with 4–15 perigynia;

distal staminate spikes 3.1–11.3 × 0.7–2.7 mm.

ascending to spreading, green, straw colored, or occasionally white, 10–20-veined abaxially, conspicuously 0–12-veined adaxially, thin, broadly ovate, flat except over achene, 4–5.8 × 1.8–3.4 mm, 0.3–0.5(–0.6) mm thick, 1.7–2.3 times as long as wide, margin flat, including wing 0.4–1 mm wide, edge minutely crinkled and ciliate-serrulate at least distally;

beak spreading, gold, red-brown to dark brown, sometimes white-hyaline at tip, flat, ± ciliate-serrulate, sometimes cylindric, unwinged, ± entire for 0.5–0.7 mm, abaxial suture usually inconspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 2.2–3 mm.

yellowish green to grayish green, veinless, globose to obovoid, 2.3–3.1 × 1–1.4 mm, as long as or longer than wide;

beak often bent, pale green, occasionally with reddish brown tinge, 0.4–0.8 mm, ciliate-serrulate, apical teeth 0.1–0.2 mm.

elliptic to broadly obovate, (1.4–)1.7–2.4 × 1–1.6 mm, 0.3–0.5 mm thick.

brown, obovoid, obtusely trigonous in cross section, 1.3–1.6 × 1–1.4 mm.

scales white, gold, red-brown, or coppery, with pale to green midstripe, lanceolate to ovate, 3.2–4.8 mm, shorter and narrower than perigynia, margin white, 0–0.15(–0.3) mm wide, apex acute to acuminate.

pistillate scales pale to dark reddish brown, with narrow to broad white margins, ovate, 2–2.8 × 1–1.8 mm, shorter than perigynia, apex obutse, acute, or acuminate (cuspidate on some basal spikes); staminate scales ovate, 2.4–4 × 1–1.9 mm, apex acute to acuminate.

1.2–2.5 mm.

3.