Flora of North America species comparison

150–300 cm; flowering shoots 1–2 cm thick in middle, stems 3–7 mm thick near inflorescence.

150–300 cm, not glaucous; flowering shoots 5–12 mm thick in middle;

stems 2–3 mm thick near inflorescence.

usually glaucous when fresh;

sheath sides papery or membranous, margins narrowly clear, summit tapered into blade to distinctly shouldered, or rarely with firm, papery auricles;

mucilage glands at sheath-blade transition usually colorless, obscure, absent from sheath center and blade;

widest blades on shoot 10–23(–29) mm wide when fresh, 5–20 mm when dry, distal blades about equaling inflorescence.

sheath sides membranous, margin broadly clear, summit with membranous auricles which often disintegrate late in season;

mucilage glands at sheath-blade transition brown, absent from blade and usually from sheath center near summit;

widest blades on shoot 4–12 mm wide when fresh, 3–8 mm when dry;

distal blade usually markedly exceeding inflorescence.

staminate spikes contiguous with pistillate or in some clones separated by to 4(–8) cm of naked axis, about as long as pistillate, ca. 1–2 cm thick at anthesis;

staminate scales colorless to straw-colored, filiform, simple, ca. 4 × 0.05 mm;

pistillate spikes in flower pale green drying brownish, later blackish brown or reddish brown, in fruit often mottled with whitish patches of pistil-hair tips, 5–25 cm × 5–8 mm in flower, 24–36 mm thick in fruit;

compound pedicels in fruit bristle-like, variable in same spike, 1.5–3.5 mm;

pistillate bracteoles absent.

staminate spikes separated from pistillate by 1–8(–12) cm of naked axis, ca. as long as pistillate, 1 cm thick in anthesis;

staminate scales variable in same spike, straw-colored to medium brown, filiform, simple to bifid or sometimes cuneate and irregularly branched, to 6 × 0.1 mm;

pistillate spikes in flower when fresh dark brown with whitish stigmas (drying brown), later medium brown, in fruit when fresh as stigmas wear off often greenish due to green carpodia, (4–)6–20 cm × 5–6 mm in flower, 13–22 mm in fruit;

compound pedicels in fruit peg-like, 0.5–0.7 mm;

pistillate bracteole blades forming spike surface before flowering, later exceeded by stigmas and about equaling or slightly exceeded by pistil hairs, very dark to medium brown, much darker than (or sometimes as dark as) stigmas, irregularly spatulate, 0.6 × 0.1–0.2 mm, wider than or about as wide as stigmas, apex rounded (to acute).

5–12 mm;

anthers 1–3 mm, thecae yellow, apex dark brown;

pollen in tetrads.

4–6 mm;

anthers 1.5–2 mm, thecae yellow, apex dark brown;

pollen in monads or some in irregular clusters.

2–3 mm in flower, 10–15 mm in fruit;

pistil-hair tips colorless, whitish in mass, not enlarged;

stigmas persistent, forming solid layer on spike surface, pale green in flower, drying brownish, then reddish brown or usually distally blackish, spatulate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.6–1 × 0.2–0.25 mm;

carpodia exceeded by and hidden among pistil hairs, straw-colored, apex rounded.

2 mm in flower, 5–7 mm in fruit;

pistil-hair tips medium brown, distinctly swollen at 10–20X;

stigmas sometimes deciduous in fruit, in flower erect, elongating, bending to form surface mat, white in flower, drying brownish, later medium brown, narrowly linear-lanceolate, 0.6–1.4 × 0.1 mm;

carpodia slightly exceeded by and visible among pistil hairs at mature spike surface, green when young and fresh, straw-colored with orange-brown spots when dry, apex nearly truncate.

numerous.

= 30.

= 30.