Flora of North America species comparison

blades linear-oblanceolate (linear-spatulate) or linear, often broadest in distal 1/3, plane, 1–3.5 × 0.1–0.3 cm, abruptly contracted into mucronulate apex.

blades linear-lanceolate or linear, usually plane (or rarely slightly convolute or folded in dried plants), 1–6 × 0.2–0.5 cm.

ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate (proximal bracts usually linear, leaflike, 4–7 times fruit length), (0.5–)1–1.5(–3) × (0.1–)0.2–0.5 cm.

ovate or ovate-lanceolate (rarely narrowly ovate-lanceolate), 1–3 × 0.3–0.8 cm.

compact and dense, short-clavate or almost ovoid (if linear, then all bracts leaflike).

usually compact and dense, rarely ± lax, and condensed only at apex, ovoid, oblong-obovate, or oblong-clavate.

segment 1.

segment 1.

reddish brown, dark brown, deep olive green (then often tinged with red), or deep beet red, usually without dark spots or whitish warts, strongly convex abaxially, plane or slightly concave adaxially, obovate-elliptic or almost obovate, usually broadest near middle (rarely slightly beyond middle), (2.5–)2.8–4 × 1.8–2.7 mm;

wing translucent only at margins, thick, (0.1–)0.2–0.3 mm wide, margins entire, apex broadly triangular or almost rounded.

yellowish brown, light brown, or brown, usually with reddish brown spots and whitish warts, strongly to slightly convex abaxially, usually concave adaxially, obovate or orbiculate-obovate, usually broadest slightly beyond middle (occasionally almost near middle), (3.3–)3.7–4.6 × (2.7–)3–3.6 mm, slightly shiny or dull;

wing translucent, thin, (rarely translucent only at margin, thicker), (0.3–)0.4–0.6 mm wide, margins entire or irregularly minutely erose-denticulate, apex rounded, truncate, or indistinctly emarginate.

branched from base or nearly so, 10–35 cm, densely or sparsely covered with dendroid or stellate hairs (rarely with scattered papillae at margins of bracts).