Plants 6-12 dm, from thick, twisted rhizomes. Leaves: blade sometimes becoming reddish brown with age, 19-42 cm × 5-20 mm, glaucous abaxially. Inflorescences loosely paniculate, 30-75-flowered, with 2-6 ascending branches, pyramidal, 10-60 × 5-12 cm. Flowers: perianth hypogynous, 20-30 mm diam.; tepals persistent in fruit, white to cream colored, ovate to lanceolate, 9-15 × 3-5 mm, somewhat contracted at base; glands 2, elliptic, margins thickened; pedicel bracts ovate, 5-15 mm. Capsules conic, 10-15 mm. 2n = 52. Flowering mid Jul--Sep. Pine bogs, savannas, sandy pinelands; 0--100 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.

Stems slender, erect, 3-12 dm from a short, stout rhizome; lvs mostly near the base, 2-5 dm נ6-20 mm, narrowed to the base, strongly nerved, the upper much reduced; panicle 1-6 dm, each branch ascending, bearing a raceme of 3-10 fls; bracts ovate, acuminate, 5 mm; pedicels 5-10 mm; tep 12-17 mm, acuminate, 3 lanceolate, 3 lance-ovate, each with 2 round glands just above the claw-like base; fr conic, acuminate, 12-18 mm; 2n=52. Bogs and marshes on the coastal plain; Va. to Fla. and La. July, Aug.

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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