Herbs, perennial, usually cespitose, 60--150 cm, base shallowly set. Stems compact. Leaves in fans, 40--70 cm; base dull, straw-colored, green, or pinkish; blade lustrous green, broadly linear, flat or slightly twisted, 5--25 mm, smooth, margins papillate. Inflorescences: scape sheaths much exceeded by leaves; scapes linear, 1--1.5 mm wide, distally scabrous, 2-ribbed, ribs harsh; spikes ovoid to ellipsoid, 12--25 mm, apex blunt; fertile bracts 5--8 mm, margins nearly entire, apex rounded. Flowers: lateral sepals conspicuously exserted, yellow-brown, nearly straight, (5.5--)6--8(--9) mm, keel firm, long-fimbriate with pale hairs; petals unfolding in late morning, blade obovate, 5--8 mm; staminodes bearded. Seeds translucent, cylindro-fusiform, 0.8--1 mm, with broad, flat, pale longitudinal ribs. 2n = 18.

Flowering summer--fall (all year south). Peats and mucks of pond shallows, sluggish shallow streams, bogs, seeps, low pine savanna; 0--300 m; Ala., Del., Fla., Ga., La., Md., Miss., N.J., N.C., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

Lvs rather deeply set, ascending, linear, mostly 5-70 cm נ0.5-2.5 mm, flat or slightly twisted, with soft, thin, keeled, pale to anthocyanic base; scapes 8-15 dm, twisted and evidently multi-ribbed below, flattened and 2-3(4)-ridged above, the ridges tuberculate-scabrid, harsh to the touch; spikes 1-2.5 cm at maturity, ovoid or broadly ellipsoid, many-fld; keel of the lateral sep broad, slightly thickened, long-fimbriate (and usually crisped) especially toward the prominently exserted tip, making the spike appear dull and fuzzy; pet-blades yellow, 5-6 mm, obovate, unfolding in the morning; seeds 0.8-1 mm, slender, with ca 12 broad, pale, flattened, longitudinal wavy lines nearly as broad as the intervals; 2n=18. Wet low places, the base often submersed; coastal plain from N.J. to Fla. and Miss. Midsummer-fall.

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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