Flora of North America species comparison

to 100 cm × 2 mm, scabrous.

acutely angled, 35–70 cm, glabrous.

sheath fronts spotted red-brown or pale brown, apex truncate or short-convex, membranous or hyaline, rugose;

ligule retuse or rounded, to 2 mm, free limb to 0.2 mm;

blades 120 cm × 5 mm, longer than flowering stem.

basal sheaths red-brown;

sheaths of proximal leaves bladeless, scabrous, fronts with red-brown spots, prominently ladder-fibrillose, apex red-brown, U-shaped;

blades hypostomic, 2–4 mm wide, papillose abaxially.

spicate, (3–)7–10 cm × 15 mm, with 10–15 branches, the proximal branches distinctly separate; the proximal internode to 25 mm;

bracts setaceous, those subtending at least the proximal lateral branches conspicuous.

proximal bract shorter than inflorescence, 1–2 mm wide.

erect; staminate 1–2; pistillate 2–4;

proximal pistillate spike 2–4.5 cm × 5–6 mm, base cuneate.

green to pale brown, veinless on both faces or 3-veined abaxially, body ovate or elliptic, 2–3.2 × 1.3–1.8 mm, base obtuse;

beak 0.8–1.2 mm, 1/3–1/2 length of perigynium.

ascending, pale brown with red-brown spots on apical 1/2, often blackish apically, 5–9-veined on each face, somewhat flattened, loosely enclosing achenes, thin-walled, ovoid or ellipsoid, 2.2–4 × 1.2–1.8 mm, leathery, dull, apex rounded or obtuse, papillose;

beak red-brown, 0.1–0.3 mm.

red-brown, ovate, 1.2–1.4 × 1 mm, glossy.

not constricted, dull.

pale brown, hyaline, awn to 3 mm.

scales dark red-brown to black, shorter than perigynia, apex obtuse, awnless.

= 52.

= 70, 72.