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hairy fimbry

Habit Plants perennial, mostly loosely cespitose, to 100 cm, bases swollen; rhizomes short, knotty, or scaly, slender, contorted.
Culms

sometimes solitary, narrowly linear, distally angular, glabrous.

Leaves

ascending, from 1/3 as long to equally as long as culms, glabrous to pubescent;

sheaths apically ciliate;

ligule essentially absent or (in rhizomatous individuals) present, complete or incomplete;

blades narrowly linear, 1–2 mm wide, mostly strongly involute, scabrid-ciliate.

Inflorescences

anthelae simple or compound, compact or diffuse, mostly broad, ascending-branching;

scapes slender, wandlike, 1 mm thick;

lower leafy involucral bracts exceeded by or exceeding panicle.

Spikelets

variously red-brown, broadly ovoid to lance-cylindric, 5–10 mm;

fertile scales broadly ovate, obtuse or obtuse-angled, 2.5–3.5 mm, abaxially glabrous or variously puberulent, midrib excurrent as mucro.

Flowers

stamens 3;

styles 2-fid, flat, fimbriate.

Achenes

yellowish to dark brown, lenticular-obovoid, 1 mm, with 11–20 vertical lines of horizontally rectangular or isodiametric, distinct or indistinct pits.

2n

= 20.

Fimbristylis puberula

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MI; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; ON
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Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Culm bases swollen, knotty, closely joined forming short thick, knotty rhizomes; leaves and sheaths totally pubescent or glabrous; ligule absent or incomplete; backs of involucral sheaths and fertile scales puberulent at least distally.
var. puberula
1. Culm bases not swollen, producing several slender, scaly, orange rhizomes; leaves and sheaths mostly glabrous; ligule present, mostly complete; involucral sheaths and fertile scales usually smooth.
var. interior
Source FNA vol. 23.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Fimbristylis
Sibling taxa
F. annua, F. autumnalis, F. brevivaginata, F. caroliniana, F. castanea, F. cymosa, F. decipiens, F. dichotoma, F. miliacea, F. perpusilla, F. schoenoides, F. squarrosa, F. thermalis, F. tomentosa, F. vahlii
Subordinate taxa
F. puberula var. interior, F. puberula var. puberula
Synonyms Scirpus puberulus
Name authority (Michaux) Vahl: Enum. Pl. 2: 289. (1805)
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