Herbs, annual, cespitose. Culms trigonous, 5-50 cm × 0.4-2 mm, glabrous. Leaves flat, 10-30 cm × 1-3 mm. Inflorescences: heads loosely globose, 10-22 mm diam.; rays 0-6, 1-7 cm; bracts 3-6, horizontal to slightly ascending, flat, 3-26 cm × 1-3 mm. Spikelets 6-20, linear-lanceoloid, compressed, 7-30 × 2-3 mm; floral scales 8-28, stramineous to light reddish brown, laterally ribless, ovate, 2.7-3.6 × 1.6-1.8 mm. Flowers: stamens 2; anthers 0.5 mm, connective apex reddish, subulate, 0.1-0.2 mm; styles 1.9-2.1 mm; stigmas 1-1.3 mm. Achenes brown, oblong, 1.2-1.6 × 0.6-0.9 mm, base cuneate to ± stipelike, apex obtuse, apiculate, surfaces minutely punctate.

Fruiting summer. Swales between dunes, upper edges of tidal marshes, occasionally emergent shorelines, roadsides, inland ditches; 0(-50) m; Conn., Ga., Ill., La., Maine, Mass., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., S.C., Va.

Tufted annual 1-4 dm; lvs 1-3 mm wide, shorter than the stem; bracts several, to 2.5 dm, 1-3 mm wide; spikes all sessile, or the 1-6 rays to 10 cm; spikelets 5-10, 15-20 נ2.5-3 mm, narrowly lanceolate in outline and acute; scales stramineous, narrowly oblong, 2.5-3.5 mm, acute or obtuse and minutely apiculate; stamens 2; achenes lenticular, obovate-elliptic, 1.2-1.7 mm. Brackish marshes and sandy beaches along the coast; Me. to Fla., La., and the W.I. (C. nuttallii; C. polystachyos, misapplied)

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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