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Herbs, annual, rarely biennial, cespitose or solitary, 10--100 cm. Stems compact. Leaves erect or ascending in narrow fans, 5--60 cm; sheaths straw-colored, light green, or brown, smooth; blade green, linear, flattened, 2--5(--15) mm wide, smooth, margins smooth or papillate. Inflorescences: scape sheaths exceeded by principal leaves; scapes linear, terete, distally oval, (0.5--)1--1.5(--2) mm wide, smooth, 1--2-ribbed, ribs papillate; spikes ovoid to ellipsoid or cylindro-lanceoloid, 7--15(--25) mm, apex acute; fertile bracts 5--7 mm, margins entire, apex rounded. Flowers: lateral sepals included, slightly curved, 5--7 mm, keel scarious, lacerate, thin; petals unfolding in morning, blade obtriangular, 3 mm; staminodes bearded. Seeds translucent, ellipsoid, 0.4--0.5 mm, faintly ribbed. 2n = 18.
Short-lived, often annual; lvs linear, mostly 10–60 cm × 2–5 mm, ascending, smooth, lustrous yellow-green, pale (not anthocyanic) at the dilated, soft, thin, keeled base; scapes 2–8 dm, terete and finely many-ridged below, becoming flattened (but narrow) and usually 1-or 2-edged above; spikes 0.5–1.5 cm at maturity, narrowly ovoid to oblong, blunt; lateral sep shortly included, the broad keel lacerate for 1/2–2/3 its length; pet-blades cuneate, 3 mm, yellow, unfolding in the morning; seeds 0.5 mm, faintly ribbed; 2n=18. Wet, sunny, disturbed sites, often weedy; coastal plain from N.J. to Fla., Tex., and trop. Amer., perhaps only intr. in U.S. Early summer–fall.
Somewhat tufted or annual. Leaves linear, 12-30 (-40) cm. long, acute, smooth or rarely minutely tuberculate beneath; sheath 1/3-1/2 the length of the blade. Flowering scapes slender, 1-to 2-costate, 3-6 dm. tall; spikes many-flowered, ovoid or ellipsoid, 8-13 mm. long, 5-8 mm. thick, the flowering bracts obovate, 5-7 mm. long, 3.5-4.5 mm. broad, entire, tawny or rusty, somewhat shin-ing, bearing on the outer face a greenish ovate area about 2 mm. long. Sepals 2, in-cluded within the bracts, the keel entire be. low, lacerate-dentate, from above the middle. Petals yellow, 5 mm. long.
