Flora of North America species comparison

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.

erect or ascending, 1/2–2/3 plant height, bases of leaves hard, leathery, usually dark brown or castaneous;

sheaths distally bristly-ciliate, backs chestnut brown, glabrous;

ligule absent;

blades narrowly linear, 1–2(–3) mm wide or thick, mostly strongly involute or adaxially deeply sulcate, margins scabridulous, surfaces glabrous.

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.

anthelae mostly compound, ascending-branched, longer than broad;

scapes wandlike, narrowly linear, 1.5–2(–3) mm thick, distally round or slightly compressed;

proximalmost leafy involucral bract mostly shorter than anthela or equaling it, rarely slightly longer.

yellowish, mostly turgidly ovoid, 5–8 mm;

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

chestnut brown to dull brown, ellipsoid, ovoid, or cylindric, 5–20 mm;

fertile scales broadly ovate to nearly orbiculate, 3.5–4.5 mm, apex rounded, sometimes ciliolate, midrib reaching tip or excurrent as short mucro.

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

stamens 2–3;

styles 2-fid, flat, fimbriate.

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.

lustrous brown, lenticular-obovoid or obpyriform, 1.5–2 mm, appearing striate, with many fine, vertical lines of isodiametric pits.

= 10.

= 20.