Scleria minor
Scleria curtissii
slender nutrush
in tufts, usually filiform, very slender, 35–80 cm, base 1–2 mm thick, glabrous or nearly so, somewhat scabrous toward apex.
± in tufts, slender, 20–40 cm, glabrous or pilose.
sheaths purple tinged, scarcely winged, glabrous or minutely pilose;
contra-ligules ovate, quite short, rigid;
blades attenuate, keeled, shorter than culms, 1–2.5 mm wide, usually glabrous or nearly so.
sheaths reddish, not winged, weakly ribbed, pilose;
contra-ligule obtuse to triangular, short;
blades channeled, shorter than or equaling inflorescence, 1–2 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose on margins and midvein abaxially.
axillary and terminal, fasciculate;
fascicles (1–)2(–3), 10–18 × 4–8 mm, each with 1–5 spikelets, the lateral on long filiform peduncles;
bracts subtending inflorescence leaflike, lanceolate, 3–9 cm, long acuminate-attenuate, usually glabrous.
terminal cluster, sometimes with 1 or 2 axillary clusters, 0.4–1.5 cm × 2–8 mm;
lateral clusters remote on filiform peduncles;
bracts subtending inflorescence erect, short, appearing like continuation of culm, glabrous or sparsely pilose on margins and midvein abaxially.
bisexual and staminate, brown, 3–6 mm;
staminate scales lanceolate-acuminate, pistillate scales ovate, midrib excurrent, awnlike.
bisexual or staminate, 2–5 mm;
staminate scales lanceolate, margins scarious;
pistillate scales broadly ovate-lanceolate, margins scarious, midvein green, excurrent.
brownish gray or with dark longitudinal bands, ovoid, 1.5–2 mm, smooth, shining, apex distinctly umbonate;
hypogynium somewhat reduced, obscurely 3-angled, low, covered with whitish siliceous, papillose-spiculose crust.
globose or ovoid, 2–3 mm, bluntly umbonate, surface distinctly reticulate, irregularly ridged toward apex, basal papillae reduced or absent, apex bluntly mucronate;
hypogynium with 6 rather confined tubercles arranged in pairs.
Scleria minor
Scleria curtissii
Scleria minor is mostly confined to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains; inland at higher elevations it is very uncommon and usually found in bogs. Some authors subsume the species under a broadly conceived S. triglomerata (R. K. Godfrey and J. W. Wooten 1979; J. W. Kessler 1987).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Scleria curtissii was reduced to a variety of S. pauciflora because of the existence in the mountains of Mexico of specimens with some features that appeared intermediate between the two species (J. E. Fairey 1969). The reticulated achenes and slender habit of this narrowly distributed entity, however, still appear striking and not especially similar to the Mexican plants. It is tentatively accorded specific rank here pending a thorough study of the systematics of those Mexican plants. The taxon has also been treated as S. ciliata var. curtissii (J. W. Kessler 1987; R. P. Wunderlin 1998).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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