Flora of North America species comparison

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

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

stems 3–4 mm thick near spike.

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 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.

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 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.

5–12 mm;

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

pollen in tetrads.

5 mm;

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

pollen in single grains.

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, 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.

numerous.

= 30.

= 30.