Flora of North America species comparison

stiff, slender.

erect or excurved, lax, leafy, slender to wiry.

overtopped by culm;

basal leaves spreading, twisted, distal longer, erect or ascending;

blades proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering.

spikelet clusters 1–4, proximalmost widely spaced, spikelets elongate, open, turbinate or compactlobed hemispheric;

branches erect to ascending; leafy bracts setaceous, exceeding proximal clusters, exceeded by distal clusters.

broadly ovoid.

mostly dark brown to brown, globose to broadly ovoid, (2–)2.5–3(–4) mm, apex acute;

fertile scales broadly ovate to orbiculate, 1.7–2.3 mm, apex obtuse to rounded or emarginate, midrib mostly included, sometimes excurrent as apiculus.

perianth bristles reaching at least to tubercle base, often slightly beyond tip.

perianth bristles 6 or less, antrorsely barbellate, of various lengths.

body distinctly transversely wavyrugose, with intervals of fine or coarse rectangular alveolae;

tubercle depressedconic or patelliform, nearly covering apex of truncate summit of fruit body, apex apiculate.

1–3 per spikelet, 1.5–1–8 mm (–2 mm in var. pinetorum);

body tumidly biconvex;

surfaces transversely wavyrugose, intervals of vertically rectangular alveolae or transverserugosity indistinct, surface isodiametrically alveolate or cancellate;

tubercle shortconic to patelliformapiculate.