Flora of North America species comparison

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

lax, filiform, leafy.

shorter than culm;

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

spreading to ascending, exceeding or exceeded by culm;

blades 0.2–0.3 mm wide, margins strongly involute or channeled, 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.

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

branches few; foliaceous bracts setaceous, longer than 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.

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

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

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

perianth absent.

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.

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.