Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect to ascending, leafy, slender, angular.

shorter than culms;

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

exceeded by culm;

blades linear, proximally flat, 3–6 mm wide, apex tapering, 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.

of terminal and axillary clusters, 3–5, proximalmost widely spaced, turbinate or lobed, fascicles dense, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding all but proximalmost 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.

rich redbrown, ovoid, (4–)5–6(–7) mm, apex acuminate;

fertile scales ovate, (3.5–)4–5 mm, apex acuminate, midrib short or longexcurrent.

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

perianth bristles 6, reaching past 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.

mostly 3–4(–7) per spikelet, 3 mm with pedicellar joint and tubercle;

body pale yellowbrown, obovoidlenticular, 1.4–1.7 × 1.4 × 1.5;

surfaces transversely finely wavyrugulose, intervals vertically rectangularalveolate;

pedicellar joint 0.3–0.6 mm;

tubercle compressed, triangularacuminate, 0.5–0.6 (–1) mm, margin setulose.