Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect to arching, leafy, trigonous, slender, firm.

overtopped by scape;

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

overtopped by culms;

blades linear, proximally flat, 3–7 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering.

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 2–6, sparse, widely spaced, turbinate;

peduncles and branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding proximal 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, ovoid to ellipsoid, (4–)5–8(–9) mm, apex acute or acuminate;

fertile scales ovate, (5.5–)6–6.5(–7) mm, midrib included or shortexcurrent.

perianth absent.

perianth bristles 6(–8), mostly reaching from fruit midbody to tubercle base, 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, (3.5–)4–5 mm;

body dark brown to mahogany or nearly black, broadly obovoid, tumid, nearly smooth, buttressed to tubercle;

tubercle lowconic, rimmed, 0.7(–1) mm, apex apiculate.