Flora of North America species comparison

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

lax,filiform, leafy, terete, grooved.

shorter than culm;

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

ascending to erect, exceeded by culm, blades lax, filiform, margins proximally deeply involute, apex trigonous, tapering.

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

mostly cymose clusters, simple or compound, 1–3(–4), widely spaced, loose, narrowly to broadly turbinate;, branchies capillary, ascending to spreading, leafy bracts setaceous, exceeded by or exceeding cymes.

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.

light redbrown or brown, lanceovoid to fusiform, 3–4(–4.5) mm, apex acuminate, fertile scales ovate, mostly 2–3 mm, apex rounded to acute, midrib included or shortexcurrent.

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

perianth bristles mostly 6, unequal, rarely extending past fruit midbody, 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.

1–4 per spikelet, 1.8–2 mm, body yellowbrown to brown, lustrous, tumidly obovoidlenticular, 1–1.5 × 1–1.5 mm, surfaces transversely wavyrugose, intervals vertically striate with narrow alveolae, tubercle flat, triangular, 0.3–0.6 mm.