Flora of North America species comparison

erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.

erect to excurved, slender, often stiffish.

spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base;

blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate.

spikelet clusters 1–4, dense to open, mostly irregularly turbinate;

peduncles ascending, branches spreading to erect, ultimate branches with many spikelets; leafy bracts setaceoustipped, usually exceeding all clusters, or at least all but the distal.

spikelet clusters mostly dense, branches spreading to erect, stiffish; subtending leafy bracts and bractlets, mostly exceeding clusters.

light redbrown or brown, broadly ellipsoid to lanceoloid, 3–4 mm, apex acute to acuminate;

fertile scales ovate to obovate or suborbiculate, 2–3.5 mm apex acute to rounded or emarginate, midrib included or exserted as mucro.

prevalently ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 3–4 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales broadly ovate to obovate or suborbiculate, sometimes cupulate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute to rounded or emarginate, often mucronate.

perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.

perianth bristles 6, reaching at most to fruit midbody.

mostly 1 per spikelet, 2–2.5 mm, body dark brown, obovoid to subglobose, tumid or lenticular, 1.5–1.7 mm, transversely finely rugose to nearly level, intervals with very small, pitlike alveoli.

1(–2) per spikelet, 2–2.4 mm;

body usually deep brown, lustrous, tumidly obovoid to suborbicular, 1.5–1.7 mm, with many fine, undulate lines of minute, isodiametric to short-rectangular pits or very finely reticulate, appearing nearly smooth;

tubercle distinctly buttressed, lowconic 0.3–0.5(–0.7) mm.