Pale Bulrush

Scirpus pallidus (Britton) Fernald, Rhodora 8: 163. 1906
Scirpus atrovirens var. pallidus Britton, Trans N. Y. Acad. 9: 14. 1889.
Perennial; rootstock short, thick, the primary roots spongy, the secondary fibrous; culms to 1 1 dm. tall, single at the nodes, erect, green, smooth, sharply triangular, ca. 1 cm. thick at the base, 2-4 mm. broad at the summit; sheaths green, drying brown, the blades usually 1-1.8 cm. broad, very pale, few to many at the base and leafy nearly to the summit, scabrous on the margins and midrib; involucral bracts 3 or 4 unequal, leaflike, the longest ca. 1 cm. long, slightly exceeding the inflorescence, the umbel of 4—8 primary rays to 1 dm. long, these scabrous, terminated by triangular heads of many spikelets; spikelets ca. 3 mm. long, greenish-black, maturing pale brown; scales 2-3 mm. long, having greenish-black margins and conspicuously pale base and midribs, the latter prolonged into long, setulose awns; bristles white, retrorsely barbed, straight, shorter than the achene; style trifid, reddish; achene ca. 1 nun. long, white, obtusely trigonous, the prominently apiculate apex usually bent.
Type locality: "Indian territory."
Distribution: Minnesota, south to Texas, westward through the Great Basin.