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Annual herb, with fenugreek odour especially when dry, forming small tufts, up to 0.32 m high. Leaf blades 1.3-3.6 mm wide, V-shaped. Culm scapose, 3-angled, 0.5-2.0 mm in diam. Inflorescence a simple anthela of up to 7 spikes, sometimes contracted, spikes shortly cylindrical to ± spherical, 8-21 x 5-21 mm in diam. Subtending bracts 2-6, leaf-like. Spikelets densely packed, strongly compressed, ovate, 3.1-8.9 x 2.44.0 mm, 2-24-flowered. Glumes not imbricate, exposing fruits at maturity, lanceolate when flattened, excluding awn 1.0-2.1 mm long, keel excurrent into 0.4-1.8 mm long, recurved awn. Stamens 1. Flowering time Jan.-Mar. Nutlet obtriangular, 0.4-0.9 x 0.25-0.55 mm, 3-angled, dark grey-brown, surface puncticulate or minutely reticulate.
Slender, tufted, sweet-scented annual 0.5–2 dm; lvs few, all borne near the base, mostly 0.5–2(–2.5) mm wide, up to as long as or a little longer than the stems; invol bracts elongate, some or all of them much surpassing the infl; spikelets in dense, capitate clusters, the terminal cluster sessile, the others (if present) on slender rays to 3 cm; spikelets 4–10 mm, flattened, 6–20-fld; scales evidently (5)7–9-nerved, 1.0–1.7 mm exclusive of the recurved, slender awn-tip, this 0.3–1 mm; rachilla wingless, ± persistent, the scales falling from it at maturity; stamen 1; anthers 0.2–0.3 mm; achenes trigonous, 0.6–1 mm; 2n=48, 56, 64. Moist or wet, often sandy soil; nearly cosmop., and throughout our range. (C. aristatus; C. inflexus)
Annual herb, up to 0.30 m high; forming small tufts; nutlets obovate, covered with conical, sparsely spaced, flat-topped papillae. Leaves developed. Flowers: inflorescence with long peduncle, terminal, simple umbel of up to 7 spikes; spikelets abscising as entire units, except for basal sterile glumes; glumes few per spikelet, not winged on keels, with aristae 0.4-1.1 mm long, greenish, lightly tinged with purple-brown; Feb.-Apr.
Dwarf annual herb, forming small tufts, up to 320 mm tall. Inflorescence a long-peduncled, terminal simple umbel of up to 7 spikes. Aristae of glumes 0.4-1.1 mm long. Fruits 0.25-0.45 mm wide, inversely pyramidal, truncate, covered with closely spaced flat-topped papillae. Glumes greenish, lightly tinged with purple-brown.
A sedge.
