Flora of North America species comparison

obscurely to ca. 10-ribbed when dry, terete, 1–12 cm × 0.4–1 mm, very soft, spongy.

3–42 cm × 0.3–0.6 mm.

distal leaf sheaths fugaceous, colorless, translucent, apex blunt.

distal leaf sheaths often disintegrating, thinly membranous-translucent, inflated distally, often wrinkled, apex blunt.

ovoid, 2–3 × 1–1.5 mm, apex acute;

scales 5–15, 5–7 per mm of rachilla, colorless to stramineous, rarely slightly reddish, medially broadly greenish to colorless, faintly 3–5-veined, often ovate, membranous, fleshy;

proximal scale 2–2.5 × 0.7 mm, other scales 1.5–2 × 0.7 mm, midrib obscure to slightly keeled, apex acute to rounded.

ellipsoid, 1.5–9 × 1–3.5 mm, apex acute to acuminate;

proximal scale without flower, not amplexicaulous;

floral scales to 65, 5–7 per mm of rachilla, loosely appressed to appressed, elliptic, 1–3 × 0.4–1.6 mm, membranous, apex acute.

perianth bristles equaling achene;

anthers yellow to brown, 0.3–0.5 mm.

perianth bristles (0–)5–8, typically 7, white to stramineous, spinules dense to few;

styles 2-fid, rarely 3-fid.

brownish, angles plus longitudinal ridges ca. 7, narrowly obovoid, 2 times longer than wide, 0.75–0.9 × 0.35–0.4 mm, trabeculae ca. 50, distinct.

stramineous to green or dark brown, biconvex, rarely trigonous, obovoid to obpryiform, 0.4–1.1 × 0.3–0.8 mm, very finely reticulate at 40X.

brown, pyramidal, 0.15 × 0.15–0.2 mm.

whitish to stramineous or green, 0.2–0.7 × 0.2–0.4 mm, apex acute to acuminate.