Flora of North America species comparison

150–400 cm, not glaucous; flowering shoots 1–2 cm thick in middle;

stems 3–4 mm thick near spike.

sheath sides membranous, margin broadly clear, summit tapered to blade or with persistent, membranous auricles;

mucilage glands at sheath-blade transition orange-brown, numerous on entire sheath and proximal 1–10 cm of blade;

widest blades on shoot 6–18 mm wide when fresh, 5–15 mm when dry;

distal blade about equaling inflorescence.

basal and cauline, 2-ranked, mostly ascending;

sheaths open, margins overlapping, clear, summit tapered into blade or auriculate;

blades twisted into loose helix, narrowly linear-attenuate, apex acute, aerenchyma prominent.

staminate spike separated from pistillate by (0–)1–8 cm of naked axis, ca. 1.4 X longer than pistillate, 1 cm thick at anthesis; staminate scales straw-colored to mostly bright orange-brown, variable in same spike, linear to cuneate, often laciniate distally, to 3–4 × 0.3 mm; pistillate spikes in flower when fresh bright cinnamon-brown with whitish stigmas (drying brownish), later orange- (to medium) brown, in fruit generally paler as stigmas and often bracteole blades wear off, ca. 6–35 cm × 5–6 mm in flower, 15–25 mm in fruit;

compound pedicels in fruit peg-like, ca. 0.6–0.9 mm; pistillate bracteole blades forming spike surface before flowering, later slightly exceeded by stigmas and slightly exceeding pistil hairs, straw-colored to bright orange-brown, much paler than to nearly same color as stigmas, irregularly narrowly to broadly spatulate or lanceolate, 0.8 × 0.1–0.3 mm, mostly wider than stigmas, apex variable in same inflorescence or different plants, acute or acuminate.

1, terminal, erect, equaled or exceeded by cauline leaves, cylindric, spikelike (hereafter "spikes"); staminate spike flowers deciduous but axis generally persistent; staminate spike distal to pistillate spike;

young spikes subtended by early-deciduous bracts resembling reduced foliage leaves, 1 bract subtending pistillate spike, 1 bract subtending and several within staminate spike;

,staminate spike flowers deciduous but axis generally persistent; staminate axis with numerous simple or branched scales arising among flowers; pistillate axis with numerous projections ("compound pedicels"), evident on denuded fruiting spike, each bearing several flowers; in some species flowers subtended by slender bracteoles.

unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same plants, numerous, densely packed in unisexual spikes, minute, wind-pollinated (stigmas receptive several days before pollen is shed);

perianth probably represented by staminate scales and by hairs on stipes of pistillate flowers.

5 mm;

anthers 2–2.5 mm, thecae yellow, apex bright orange-brown;

pollen in single grains.

stipitate;

stamens 1–several, filaments connate;

anthers basifixed, connective distally extended.

2 mm in flower, 8–9 mm in fruit;

pistil-hair tips straw-colored to orange-brown in mass, usually with 1 subapical bright orange-brown, generally enlarged cell;

stigmas often deciduous in fruit, in flower erect, elongating, bending to form surface mat, white in flower when fresh, later bright orange-brown, narrowly linear-lanceolate, ca. 1 × 0.1 mm;

carpodia slightly exceeded by pistil hairs, usually evident at fruiting spike surface, straw-colored, orange-spotted, apex broadly rounded.

hypogynous, stipitate (stipe bearing numerous straight hairs, developing after flowering, acting in wind dispersal of fruits);

pistils 1, 1-carpellate;

ovariesy 1-locular;

placentation apical;

ovules 1;

styles 1, unbranched;

stigmas 1, whitish or green, drying brown, 1-sided, smooth; agamous flowers numerous (ovaries modified after flowering as carpodia).

follicles, fusiform;

pericarp clear, hyalinetransparent, splitting longitudinally in water to release seed.

endosperm starchy, oily;

embryo cylindric.

= 30.