Biorepository Data Portal

Herbs, perennial, cespitose, 2.5--6.5 dm. Culms erect, terete, 1--3 mm diam., smooth. Cataphylls 0--1, maroon or dark green, apex obtuse. Leaves: basal 1, cauline 2--3; auricles 1--2.1 mm, apex rounded, membranaceous; blade maroon or dark green, terete to compressed, 3--20 cm x 1--2.4 mm. Inflorescences terminal panicles of 30--70(--130), 5--20 cm, branches spreading; primary bract erect; ; heads (1--)2--10-flowered, hemispheric or narrower, 5--10 mm diam. Flowers: tepals green to straw-colored, lanceolate, apex acute; outer tepals (2--)2.6--3.2 mm; inner tepals (1.8--)2.3--3 mm; stamens 3, anthers 1/2--2/3 filament length. Capsules exserted, , straw-colored, 1-locular, linear-lanceoloid, 4--5.2 mm, apex acute, valves separating at dehiscence. Seeds oblong-ellipsoid, 0.3--0.4 mm, not tailed; body clear yellow-brown. Fruiting summer. In soft mucky substrates, marshy shores, sloughs, occasionally in wet wooded places, often in shallow water; commonly abundantly colonizing wet, sandy- alluvial outwash in ditches and clearings; 10--1000 m; Ala., Ark., Calif., Conn., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Ohio, Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., Wash., W.Va.; probably introduced, South America.

Stems clustered, slender, erect, 2-5 dm, with usually 2-4 terete, septate lvs; infl decompound, very diffusely branched, widely spreading, 1-2 dm, usually constituting a third of the height of the plant, bearing very many obpyramidal, 3-10-fld heads; fls eprophyllate; tep subequal, linear-subulate, 2.3-2.8 mm; stamens 3; fr unilocular, golden-brown, prismatically linear-trigonous or subtriquetrous, 4-6 mm, a fifth as thick, gradually attenuate, very acute, much surpassing the tep. Wet soil and muddy shores; s. Ind. to Mo. and Okla., s. to Ala. and Tex.; coastal plain from se. Va. to S.C.; reported from W.Va.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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