Flora of North America species comparison

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

excurvednodding, leafy, triangular, slender;

principal leaves overtopped by culm;

blades flat, 2.5–5 mm wide, apex attenuate, trigonous.

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.

terminal and axillary, spikelet clusters mostly 2–6, compact, turbinate to hemispheric, 1.5–2 cm wide;

peduncles progressively shorter distally on culm;

bracteal leaves mostly exceeding subtended groups.

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.

crowded, deep redbrown, lanceellipsoid, 4.5–6.5 mm;

fertile scales ovatelanceolate, 3.5–4(–4.5) mm, apex acute, midrib mostly shortexcurrent.

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

perianth bristles 6, overtopping tubercle, 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(–3) per spikelet, 3–4 mm;

body dark redbrown with pale center, stipitate, lenticular, obovoid, or orbicular, 1.5–2 × 1.2–1.4 mm, base narrowed, margins pale, wirelike;

surfaces slick;

tubercle triangular-subulate, 1.3–1.5(–1.8) mm.