Fuirena squarrosa Michx.

Fuirena squarrosa is most similar to F. pumila in perianth except it is perennial; to F. breviseta except its distal sheaths are hirsute, not glabrous; and to F. bushii except its perianth blade is flatter and the anthers shorter.

Plants of the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains and inland to adjacent provinces east of the Mississippi River usually have closely set cormose rhizome buds.

Herbs perennial, cespitose, to 1 m; rhizomes scaly; offshoots cormose. Culms erect to leaning, smooth except in inflorescence. Leaves: all sheaths hispid-hirsute, sometimes also hirtellous; principal blades linear, 8–20 cm, abaxially puberulent, hispid-hirsute, adaxially hispid-hirsute-ciliate, scabridulous. Inflorescences in clusters of terminal spikelets or from 1–3 penultimate nodes, proximalmost involucral bract longest, exceeding inflorescence, distal 1–2 bracts shorter. Spikelets ovoid to cylindric-lanceoloid, 1–2 cm, apex acute; fertile scales 2.5–3.5 mm; cusp excurved, more than 1/2 length of scale, scabrid; ribs 3–5(–7). Flowers: perianth bristles reaching base of perianth blades or beyond, retrorsely barbellate; perianth blades narrowly to broadly ovate, uniformly compressed or distally tumid, 1 mm, base 3-ribbed, apex incurved, acuminate; anthers 3, 1 mm. Achenes: stipe shorter than perianth stipe; body angles wirelike, pale, faces deep brown to chestnut brown, faintly cross-lined, 1 mm. 2n = 46.

Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Md., Miss., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

Fruiting summer–fall.

Wet acid substrates, bogs, seeps, ditches, pond and lakeshores, savanna, and flatwoods; 0–500m.

Fuirena squarrosa var. hispida (Elliott) Chapman

Fuirena squarrosa Michx. Fl. Bor.-Am. 1 : Z7. 1803
Fuirena hispida-EW. Hot. S. C. & Ga. 1 : 579. 1821. ("High ridges between the Flint and Chat-
tahoochie Rivers, Georgia. ) Fuirena pumila Torr. ; Spreng. Syst. 1: 237. 1825. (Long Island N Y) hmrena squarrosa pumila Torr. Comp. 46. 1826 Fuirena Torreyana Beck, Bot. U. S. 429. 1833. Fuirena squarrosa var. hispida Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. 514 1860 Fuirena squarrosa var. breviseta Coville, Bull. Torrey Club 17-6 1890 Fuirena breviseta Coville; Harper, Bull. Torrey Club 28: 466. 1901.
Perennial, to 1 m. tall, with a short, creeping or bulbous rootstock, or becoming dwarfed and annual (var. pumila); culms slender, many-angled, glabrous to hispid; leaves and sheaths nearly glabrous to densely hispid, 2-7 mm. wide, the blades to 2 dm. longspikelets 2-8, 5-15 mm. long, in squarrose, capitate terminal or axillary clusters, the spreading awns of the hispid scales prominent; perianth-scales long-aristate at the apex; bristles from very short to as long as the scales, smooth to retrorsely toothed; mature achene dark brown with a long prominently hispid beak sometimes nearly glabrous in var. pumila; anthers OS0.75 mm. long.
Type locality : Georgia