Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect or ascending, leafy, trigonous, slender.

shorter than culms;

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

all exceeded by culm;

basal blades spreading, often curled, distal longer, all proximally flat, 3–5 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulately tapering.

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

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

clusters 3–5, proximalmost distant, longest pedunculate, fascicles broadly turbinate to hemispheric; leafy bracts of distal groups mostly exceeded by 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.

lanceovoid, (3.5–)4–5 mm;

fertile scales broadly ovate to ± orbiculate, cupulate, rounded, 3 mm, apex apiculate to cuspidate, midrib excurrent.

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

perianth bristles 6, overtopping tubercle (or at least its base), 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, 2.3–3 mm;

body brown, strongly compressed proximally, biconvex distally, broadly obovoid, 1.8–2.2 × 1.5 mm;

surfaces strongly transversely rugose, intervals with rows of narrow, vertical alveolae;

tubercle triangular, flat, 1 mm, base lunate, capping fruit apex, apiculate.