Flora of North America species comparison

lax, erect to excurved, leafy toward base, filiform.

erect or excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender, firm.

overtopped by scape;

blades filiform, distally flattened, channeled, tapering, to 1 mm wide, margins strongly involute, apex blunt.

shorter than culms;

blades spreading to ascending, linear, proximally flat, 2–4 mm wide, apex involute, then trigonous, subulate.

spikelet clusters 1–3, laterals widely spaced, all narrowly turbinate, ellipsoid, or ovoid; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping proximal clusters, often overtopped by terminal ones.

spikelet clusters 1–4, loose to dense, broadly turbinate, lobed or hemispheric;

peduncles and branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding proximal, sometimes distal, clusters.

erect or ascending, redbrown, lanciform, mostly 4.5–5 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales lanceolate, (3–)4–4.5 mm, apex acute, apiculate.

light redbrown, ellipsoid or narrowly ovoid, 4–5 mm, apex acute to acuminate;

fertile scales broadly ovate, 3.5–4.5 mm, apex acute or acuminate, apiculate.

perianth absent.

perianth bristles mostly 6, reaching from fruit midbody to tubercle tip or beyond, antrorsely barbellate.

2–3(–5) per spikelet;

stipe and receptacle 0.1–0.2(–0.3) mm, setose;

body brown with pale glassy center, narrowly obovoidellipsoid, lenticular, 1.2–1.5 mm, margins narrow, flowing to tubercle;

surfaces very finely lined longitudinally, transversely with wavy lines of tiny pits;

tubercle narrowly triangular or slightly concavesided, flattened, 0.7–1.2(–1.5) mm.

1(–2) per spikelet, 2.5–3 mm;

body dark brown, broadly, tumidly obovoid, 2–2.5 × 2–2.5 mm, apically buttressed to tubercle;

surfaces finely transversely rugulose or nearly level, with fine transverse rows of pits or low papillae, often appearing nearly smooth;

tubercle lowconic, 0.4–0.6 mm, apiculate.