Flora of North America species comparison

15–70 cm.

very slender, nodding, 15–60 cm, exceeding leaves, scabrid.

sheaths adaxially white-hyaline, summits U-shaped, occasionally shortly prolonged beyond collar;

distal ligules 0.8–1 mm;

blades 3–5 per fertile culm, often folded, 3.5–20 cm × 1–3 mm.

basal sheaths pale brown abaxially, inner band white-hyaline, truncate at summit;

ligules broader than long;

blades mid to dark green, flat, 15–30 × 0.75–1.5 mm, scabrid.

stiffly erect, open or spikes loosely aggregate, if open, sometimes arching, whitish to pale brown, 1.5–5 cm × 5–10 mm;

proximal internode 5–10 mm; 2d internode 4–8 mm;

proximal bracts scalelike to bristlelike, shorter than inflorescences.

1.5–2.5 cm × 3–5 mm;

proximal bract 5–20 mm;

distal bracts scalelike.

3–5, distant, distinct, ovoid-ellipsoid, 7–14 × 3–8 mm, base tapered to attenuate, apex acute.

2–4(–5), proximal separate, distal aggregate, globose, 3–5 × 2–4 mm.

essentially erect, pale yellowish brown, often with green beak, 8–10-veined abaxially, veinless or indistinctly 8–10-veined adaxially, ovate to broadly ovate, plano-convex or thickly concavo-convex, 3.8–4.8 × 1.4–2.2 mm, 0.5–0.6 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.2–0.4 mm wide, ciliate-serrulate at least on distal body;

beak white-hyaline at tip, flat, ± ciliate-serrulate to the bidentate apex, abaxial suture inconspicuous or white-hyaline, distance from beak tip to achene 1.4–2.2 mm.

1–6, pale green, often brown or even purplish in age, plump, 2.25–3 × 1.3–1.5 mm, membranous, shiny.

ovate-oblong, 1.7–2.1 × 1.2–1.4 mm, 0.5–0.6 mm thick.

red-brown, oblong-elliptic, 1.5–1.75 × 1 mm, glossy.

scales whitish to yellowish, with 1-veined, green to gold midstripe, or white almost throughout at maturity, ovate, 4.4–6 mm, longer and as wide as and concealing perigynia, margin hyaline, 0.3–0.7 mm wide, apex acute.

scales white-hyaline with green center, ovate, narrower and shorter than perigynia, apex acuminate.

= 68.

= 70.