Herbs, perennial, cespitose, 3--9 dm. Culms erect, 2--4 mm diam., scabrous. Cataphylls 0 or 1--2, straw-colored, apex acuminate. Leaves: basal 1--2, cauline 1--2; auricles 1--7.5 mm, apex rounded, scarious; blade terete, 4--25 cm x 1--1.8 mm, scabrous. Inflorescences panicles of 5--30 heads, 12--15 cm, erect to ascending branches; primary bract erect; heads 2--6-flowered, broadly obovoid, 5--10 mm diam. Flowers: tepals green to reddish brown, lanceolate; outer tepals 3.3--3.9 mm, apex acuminate; inner tepals 3.9--4.7 mm, acuminate; stamens 6, anthers 1/2 filament length. Capsules exserted, chestnut brown, 3-locular, ovoid, 4.5--5.3 mm, apex acuminate, valves separating at dehiscence. Seeds fusiform, 2.2--2.6 mm, tailed. ; seed body covered with whitish translucent veil. Fruiting mid summer--early fall. Wet springy bogs, swamps, and borders of wet woods; 0--100 m; N.S.; Del., D.C., Md., N.J., N.C., Pa., Va.

Cespitose, 4-7 dm; lvs scabrous (visibly so at 10ש, conspicuously septate, the lower to 3 dm, the upper much shorter; invol lf inconspicuous, to 2 cm; infl divaricately branched, 6-12 cm, two-thirds as wide, the glomerules terminal and lateral, 2-6-fld, 1 cm thick; fls eprophyllate; tep lance-subulate, rigid, striate, the sep 3.7-4.3 mm, the pet 3.9-5.2 mm; fr 4.5-5.7 mm, strongly trigonous, ovoid, tapering to a short beak, subtrilocular, the partitions incomplete distally; seeds slenderly fusiform, caudate at both ends, 2-2.3 mm, the body two-fifths as long. Sphagnum-bogs in the pine-barrens; N.S.; s. N.J. to se. Va. (J. asper, a preoccupied name)

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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