Flora of North America species comparison

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

arching, leafy, obscurely and convexly trigonous, multi-ribbed, slender to stoutish.

shorter than culms;

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

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

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

spikelet clusters 3–several, widely spaced, often equidistant, mostly hemispheric to globose, occasionally lobed, 1–2 cm thick;

bracteal leaves much exceeding subtended inflorescence.

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.

dark red-brown to dark brown, lanceellipsoid to ellipsoid, 4–5(–6) mm, apex acute;

fertile scales elliptic, 3–3.5(–4.5) mm, apex acute, midribs 3, laterals indistinct.

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

perianth bristles 6, reaching tubercle tip, retrorsely (rarely antrorsely) barbellate.

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.

1(–2) per spikelet, 3.5–4(–4.2) mm;

body brown with pale center, obovoid distal to stipe, lenticular, 2–2.3 × 1–1.5(–2) mm;

tubercle triangular-subulate, (1–)1.5–2 mm, at least 0.5 mm wide at base.

leaves overtopped by culm;

blades linear, flat proximally, 1.5–3 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous.