Flora of North America species comparison

erect or ascending, terete to obscurely trigonous, multiribbed, densely leafybased, slender, stiff, papillose to scabridpuberulent.

stiffly erect to ascending, linear, leafy toward base, sharply trigonous, angles scabrid.

forming strong rosette, distal widely spaced, much exceeded by scape;

basal leaf blades shortlinear, flat, 4–6 mm wide, culm leaf blades narrower, longer, all ciliate, apex bluntly acute.

shorter than culm;

basal leaves forming strong rosette, shortlinear, flat, 3–5 mm wide, distal more widely spaced, narrower, apex shortacuminate, trigonous.

terminal;

spikelet cluster 1, crowded, hemispheric, often lobed, to 2 cm wide;

bracts strongly ciliate distally;

longer leafy bracts exceeding cluster.

spikelet clusters 1(–2), if 2 then closely set;

terminal cluster mostly dense, hemispheric;

proximalmost leafy bract subulate, much exceeding clusters.

dark redbrown, ovoid, 4–5(–6) mm, apex acute;

fertile scales broadly ovate, 4–4.5 mm, apex blunt, sometimes apiculate or with mucro to 1 mm, midrib scabrid.

dark redbrown, ovoid, (4–)5–6 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales ovate, mostly 4–4.5 mm, apex excurvedcuspidate.

bristles 6, some vestigial, none reaching past fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.

bristles 12, reaching to or slightly beyond tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate.

1–2 per spikelet, (1.9–)2–2.5 mm;

body dark brown with paler center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid to orbicular, 1.6–2 × 1.5–1.6 mm, margins flowing to tubercle;

tubercle lowtriangular, 0.5 mm, often apiculate.

1–2 per spikelet, 3–3.5(–3.7) mm;

body dark brown with paler center, dull, broadly ellipsoid-lenticular, 2–2.5 × 1.8–2 mm, smooth, margins flowing to tubercle;

tubercle flat, concavely triangular, 0.7–1(–1.2) mm.