Flora of North America species comparison

lax, filiform, leafy.

erect to curved, leafy, obscurely trigonous to nearly terete, few ribbed, slender.

spreading to ascending, exceeding or exceeded by culm;

blades 0.2–0.3 mm wide, margins strongly involute or channeled, apex trigonous, tapering, setaceous.

cluster of cymes 1–2, widely spaced, turbinate, sparse;

branches few; foliaceous bracts setaceous, longer than cymes.

clusters 1 or 2–3, then widely spaced, narrowly turbinate to hemispheric, 1.5–2.5 cm wide; subtending leafy bracts often exceeded by distal cluster.

brown, lanceovoid to fusiform, 2.5–3 mm, apex acuminate;

fertile scales ovate, 1.5 mm, apex acute, midrib shortexcurrent.

pale brown to nearly white, ellipsoid, 3.5–5.5 mm, apex acute;

fertile scales elliptic, 3–3.5(–4) mm, apex acute or acuminate, midrib excurrent as mucro.

perianth absent.

perianth bristles 10–12, slightly overtopping tubercle, retrorsely barbellate or rarely smooth, base often setose.

0.9–1 mm;

body lustrous pale brown, ellipsoidlenticular, 0.8–0.9 × 0.5–0.6 mm, margins narrow, wirelike;

surfaces minutely reticulate;

bristles 4–6, the longest from shorter than fruit midbody to fully as long, rarely reaching tubercle tip, minutely antrorsely barbellate;

tubercle shortconic, to 0.15 mm.

1(–2) per spikelet, (2.3–)2.5–3 mm;

body pale brown with paler center, stipitateobovoid, lenticular, 1.5–1.8(–2) × 0.9–1.2 mm;

surfaces transversely striate, relatively smooth, rim narrow, flowing to tubercle base;

tubercle narrowly triangularsubulate, 0.5–1.2 mm.

leaves mostly overtopped by culm;

blades narrowly linear to filiform, proximally flat, 0.5–1.5 mm, apex tapering, trigonous.