Flora of North America species comparison

erect, leafybased, wandlike, nearly terete, multiribbed.

slender, ± filiform, leafy, terete to bluntly trigonous.

ascending or erect, longest nearly equaling culm;

principal blades linear, involutecylindric, to 3 mm wide, apex tapering, subulate.

shorter than culm;

blades spreading to ascending, ± filiform, proximally flat, 0.5–1(–1.5) mm, apex tapering, trigonous.

terminal, heads 1–4, dense, macelike, 1–1.5 mm thick;

involucral bracts leafy, proximalmost overtopping inflorescence.

spikelet clusters 1–3, loose to dense, widely spaced to close together, turbinate to hemispheric; leafy bracts setaceous, mostly exceeding spikelet clusters.

greenish, lanceovoid, 5–6 mm, apex acuminate;

fertile scales boat-shaped, 5 mm, apex acute to shortacuminate, midrib slightly excurrent or not.

dark redbrown, lanceovoid, 2.5–3.5(–4) mm, apex acute;

fertile scales ovate, 2–3.5 mm, apex acute or acuminate, rarely minutely awned.

perianth bristles 6, exceeding fruit body, antrorsely barbellate.

bristles 6, of various length, mostly extending from fruit midbody to tubercle base, antrorsely barbellate.

1 per spikelet, 6–8(–8.7) mm;

body pale greenbrown, laterally compressed, obcordiform, 2.5–3(–4) mm, margins thick, rounded, not crimped, apex barely exserted, setulose, surfaces nearly plane, minutely cancellate (latticed);

tubercle (style base) linear, angled, 4–6 mm, much narrower than fruit summit, setulose.

1–2 per spikelet, (2–)2–2.5 mm;

body brown with pale center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid, 1.5–1.7 × 1.2–1.3 mm, surfaces nearly smooth or very finely cancellate;

tubercle flat, triangular with short-oblong, blunttipped nose, or triangularsubulate, 0.5–0.8 mm.