Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect to excurved, filiform, leafy, ± terete.

shorter than culm;

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

shorter than culm;

blades ascending, filiform, proximally to 1.5(–2)mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering, setaceous.

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

lateral spikelet clusters (0–)1–2, distant, terminal cluster ellipsoid to broadly turbinate or hemispheric, branches ascending; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping clusters.

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.

red-brown to deep brown, lanceoloid, (4–)5–6(–7) mm, apex acute;

fertile scales lanceolate, 4–5(–6) mm, apex acuminate, midrib often excurrent as awn.

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

bristles 5–6, longest reaching at least past tubercle base, mostly to tip or beyond, antrorsely barbellate.

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.

2(–3) per spikelet, (2.3–)2.5–2.6(–3) mm with pedicellar joint, receptacle, and tubercle;

body lustrous, pale brown to deep brown, obovoid to ellipsoid, lenticular, 1–1.5 × 1 mm, margins narrow, flowing to tubercle;

surfaces longitudinally finely lined, transversely very finely ridged with wavy rows of very narrow, vertical lattices, sometimes also with lines of shallow pits;

tubercle triangularsubulate, (0.7–)1–1.3(–1.5) mm, base lunate, margins setulose proximally.