Carpha glomerata Nees

Robust, glabrous, except the sparsely hispid flower-glumes; rhizome not seen in the herbarium, probably as in the next species arising from a long-creeping stolon; stem 3-6 ft. long, trigonous, with nodes and leaves (or bracts) throughout its length, nearly smooth; leaves 4-20 by 1/6-1/2 in., tough, nearly smooth, often transversely lineolate; inflorescence often 3 in. of 30 heads in a compound panicle; primary bracts like the leaves but scarcely overtopping the panicle, secondary bracts lanceolate; heads 1/3-½ in. in diam., ovoid, of 16-30 spikelets, chaffy, straw-coloured or brown; spikelets 1/4 in. long, broadly lanceolate; glumes all close together, nut-bearing glumes boat-shaped, elliptic, lanceolate-tipped, 1-nerved; hypogynous bristles 6 (3 “sepals,” 3 “petals”), linear, rigid, scabrous with up-pointed teeth, straw-coloured, not rarely irregular (several short or almost rudimentary); nut 1/12 in. long, ellipsoid, subacutely trigonous, dark-brown; style-base when young pyramidal, hispid, as the fruit ripens the style-base becomes confluent with the nut as a pointed pyramidal tip, scabrous on the angles (or nearly smooth), the style breaking off just above; outer cells of the nut quadrangular, rather large, prominent in regular series.