Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect to excurvedascending, narrowly linear to ± filiform, terete to obscurely trigonous, leafy, densely so toward base, stiff to rather lax.

shorter than culms;

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

overtopped by culm;

blades linear, ascending, proximally flat, 1–4 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering gradually.

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 1–3(–4), proximal mostly widely spaced, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric, to 2 cm broad; leafy bracts subulate, exceeding proximal spikelets, slightly or not exceeding most distal clusters.

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.

redbrown, narrowly ovoid, (3–)3.5–5 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales ovate, 3–3.5(–4) mm, apex acute, mostly with cusp or mucro 0.5–1 mm.

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

bristles 5–6, from rudimentary to reaching tubercle tip, or (rarely) beyond, 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.

1–3 per spikelet, (1.5–)2–2.2(–2.5) mm;

body dark brown with pale center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid to ± orbicular, (1.3–)1.5–1.7(–1.9) × 1–1.5 mm, margins pale, narrow or narrowly rounded, flowing to tubercle;

surfaces dull, minutely longitudinally striate;

tubercle compressed, triangular to triangularsubulate, 0.5–0.7(–0.9) mm.