Flora of North America species comparison

polystichous, mostly spreading-excurved, to 1/2 as long as culms;

sheaths usually entire;

ligule absent;

blades linear, 2–3 mm wide, flat or shallowly involute, margin scabrid, apex blunt.

polystichous, mostly spreading to ascending;

sheath margins entire;

ligule present, complete;

blades narrowly linear, to 1 mm wide, flat to shallowly involute, margins distantly scabrid, surface glabrous.

simple or compound anthelae with numerous small pedunculate clusters of sessile spikelets;

scapes linear, distally terete, 1–2 mm thick;

involucral bracts short, usually shorter than inflorescence.

spikelets 1, terminal or 2–3 in simple anthela longer than broad, laterals subsessile;

scapes narrowly linear, coarsely ribbed, distally compressed;

involucral bracts usually 1 per spikelet, exceeding or exceeded by it.

greenish brown or yellow-brown, ovoid, 2–3 mm;

fertile scales broadly ovate, 1–1.5 mm, obtuse or apically notched, midrib not excurrent.

yellowish, mostly turgidly ovoid, 5–8 mm;

fertile scales broadly ovate, 2–3 mm, apex obtuse, entire, midrib excurrent or not.

stamens usually 1;

styles 2-fid, slender, glabrous.

stamens 3, styles 2-fid, flattened, fimbriate.

dark brown to nearly black, tumidly obovoid, rarely obscurely 3-ribbed, 1 mm, faintly striate to variously warty, faintly reticulate.

near white to pale brown, lenticular-obovoid to obpyriform, 2 mm, appearing smooth under 10–20X magnification, under higher power finely longitudinally ribbed, with fine, isodiametric pits in vertical lines.

= 56.

= 10.