Plants densely cespitose; rhizomes absent. Culms trigonous, 10-40 cm, scabrous proximal to inflorescence. Leaves: basal sheaths brown; distal leaf sheaths concave at mouth; blades 10-400 × 0.8-2 mm, equaling or exceeding culms at flowering and fruiting. Inflorescences: spikelets 3-8-flowered, 4.1-5.2 × 1.5-2.1 mm; bracts equaling spikelets, 3.7-6 mm, apex awned, awn to 3 mm. Spikelets: scales orange-brown to dark brown, midribs excurrent, apex mucronate. Flowers: perianth bristles 3-6, brown, terete, nearly equaling achenes, scabrous; anthers 1-1.5 mm. Achenes compressed trigonous, 1.5-2 × 0.7-1.1 mm.

Fruiting summer (Jun-Jul). Mesic to dry hardwood forests, usually with oak component, often on hillsides; 50-900 m; Ont.; Conn., Del., D.C., Ill., Md., Mass., Mo., N.J., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Vt., Va., W.Va.

Cespitose perennial from short rhizomes; stems slender, erect, scabrous on the 3 angles; lvs several, the lower bladeless, the upper elongate, often surpassing the stem, to 1.5 mm wide; spikelet 1, terminal, ovoid, 5 mm, 4-8-fld; bract erect, ovate, prolonged into a mucro equaling or surpassing the spikelet; scales ovate, the sides brown, the broad green midrib prolonged into a mucro 0.5-1 mm; bristles 3-6, about equaling the achene; achene brown, trigonous, oblong, 2 mm, obtuse. Dry fields and open woods; Me. to Va., w. to Ont., O., Ky., and Mo. Fr May, June. (Trichophorum planifolium)

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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