Flora of North America species comparison

erect to spreading-ascending, leafybased, trigonous or compressed, ribbed.

erect to ascending, leafy, stiff.

exceeded by scape;

blades narrowly linear to filiform, 0.2–2 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous.

shorter than scape;

blades narrowly linear, (1–)2–3 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, tapering.

terminal, solitary, headlike, dense, white, leafyinvolucrate, hemispheric to globose, 0.5–1.5 cm wide;

involucral bracts (0–)1–4, ascending to recurved, green, (0.7–)2–5(–6) cm × 0.2–2 mm.

clusters 1–2, if 2 then close together, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric or lobedglobose;

primary leafy bract linear, stiff, exceeding clusters.

white, ovoid, 5–7 mm;

fertile scales several, boat-shaped, 2.5–3.5 mm, keel curved, not sharp.

light to dark redbrown, lanceovoid, 3.5–6 mm, apex acuminate;

fertile scales ovate, convex, 3–3.5(–4) mm, apex acuminate, low midrib excurrent or not.

perianth absent.

perianth bristles 6, reaching at least to tubercle base, plumose from base to more than 1/2 length of fruit body.

0.8–1 mm;

body yellow to near black, broadly pyriform-obovoid, tumidly lenticular, 0.5–0.8 × 0.5–0.8 mm, margin narrow, flowing into tubercle;

surfaces transversely sharply wavyrugose, ridges bordered by rows of fine, linear, vertical lattices;

tubercle depressedtriangular, lunate-based, shortbeaked 0.2(–0.3) mm, gray-crustaceous.

1(–2) per spikelet, (2–)2.5–2.8(–3) mm;

body redbrown or brown, tumidly obovoid, (1.5–)2–2.2 × 1–1.7 mm;

surfaces interruptedly transversely rugulose;

tubercle broadly conic, 0.5–0.8(–1) mm, base broadly 2lobed, apex often apiculate.