Flora of North America species comparison

erect or arching, leafy toward base, filiform, terete, wiry.

erect to ascending, arching, lax, leafy, slender, trigonous.

overtopped by culm;

blades linear to filiform, channeled, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, margins deeply involute, apex setaceous.

exceeded by inflorescence;

blades ascending to spreading, linear, proximally flat, 1–2(–3) mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering.

spikelet clusters 1–2(–3), dense to open, narrowly to broadly turbinate;

branches capillary, variously elongate; leafy bracts setaceous, equaling or exceeding clusters.

spikelet clusters 4–6, mostly dense, widely spaced, narrowly turbinate to ellipsoid;

peduncles erect to ascending, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding proximal clusters.

variously brown, ellipsoid, 2–3 mm, apex sharply acute;

fertile scales ovate to nearly orbiculate, rounded, 1.2–1.8 mm, apiculate, convexcupulate, midrib slender, mostly included.

dark brown, ovoid, 2–3 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales broadly ovate to ± orbiculate, cupulate, 1.5–2 mm, apex rounded to acute, midrib included or excurrent as bristle.

perianth absent.

perianth bristles 6, from vestigial to (rarely) reaching tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate.

2–3 per spikelet, 0.7–0.9(–1) mm;

body pale, obovoid-lenticular, (0.5–)0.6–0.9 × 0.4–0.5 mm, margin wirelike;

surfaces transversely rugulose;

tubercle buttonlike, depressed triangular, 0.05–0.1 mm, base lunate atop rounded fruit body.

2–3 per spikelet, 1.2–1.5 mm;

body brown, obovoid to globose, lenticular, 1–1.2 × 0.8–1 mm, margins narrow, distinct;

surfaces sharply transversely wavyrugose, intervals with rows of vertical, broadly rectangular or ± isodiametric alveolae;

tubercle lowtriangular or triangular, compressed, 0.2–0.3 mm, base lunate.