Flora of North America species comparison

erect to excurved, leafybased, filiform.

erect to excurved, filiform, leafy, stiff to lax.

shorter than culm;

blades ascending to excurved, filiform, proximally to 1 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering.

mostly slightly exceeded by culm;

blades ± filiform, proximally flat to concave, distally tapering, to 1 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, subulate.

spikelet clusters 1–3, laterals 0–2, turbinate, rarely hemispheric; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping inflorescence.

terminal;

spikelet clusters 1(–2), dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric;

longer leafy bracts 1–2(–several), setaceous, overtopping inflorescence.

redbrown, narrowly lanceoloid, 5–7 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales lanceolate, 3.5–5 mm, apex acute, mucronate.

light brown, narrowly ovoid, 2–2.5(–3) mm, apex acute or acuminate;

fertile scales 1.5–2(–2.5) mm, apex acute, midrib excurrent as cusp or awn 0.5–0.9 mm.

perianth absent.

bristles absent, rarely reduced to nubbins, or rarely 1, then shorter than fruit body.

2(–5) per spikelet, (1.7–)2–2.2 mm;

body on short, setulose receptacular stipe, brown with pale center, obovoidlenticular, 0.8–1.1 mm, surfaces very finely longitudinally lined, sometimes faintly reticulatecancellate;

tubercle triangular subulate, 0.7–0.9 mm, base lunate, edges setulose.

1 per spikelet, 1–1.8 mm;

body with dark brown ends, broad pale midzone, lenticular, ± orbicular, 1–1.2 × 0.8–1 mm, surfaces smooth;

margins sharp, flowing to tubercle;

tubercle lowtriangular, 0.2–0.3(–0.5) mm, sometimes apiculate.