Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect to ascending, leafy, slender, angular.

shorter than culm;

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

exceeded by culm;

blades linear, proximally flat, 3–6 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous, subulate.

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

of terminal and axillary clusters, 3–5, proximalmost widely spaced, turbinate or lobed, fascicles dense, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding all but proximalmost 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.

rich redbrown, ovoid, (4–)5–6(–7) mm, apex acuminate;

fertile scales ovate, (3.5–)4–5 mm, apex acuminate, midrib short or longexcurrent.

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

perianth bristles 6, reaching past tubercle, 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.

mostly 3–4(–7) per spikelet, 3 mm with pedicellar joint and tubercle;

body pale yellowbrown, obovoidlenticular, 1.4–1.7 × 1.4 × 1.5;

surfaces transversely finely wavyrugulose, intervals vertically rectangularalveolate;

pedicellar joint 0.3–0.6 mm;

tubercle compressed, triangularacuminate, 0.5–0.6 (–1) mm, margin setulose.