20. Section Paniceae G. Don

Plants monoecious, with long-creeping rhizomes, forming colonies of tufts. Vegetative stems usually present, well developed, leafy. Flowering stems mostly 1 per tuft, erect, mostly longer than the leaves, bluntly trigonous, glabrous, smooth or somewhat roughened on the angles, brown or less commonly slightly reddish purple tinged at the base. Leaves basal and on the basal half of the stems, glabrous, but with minute papillae on the undersurface (seen only with strong magnification), all with well-developed leaf blades, but the lowermost blades somewhat reduced in length, the basal leaf sheaths usually persisting and becoming more or less dissected into hairlike fibers. Spikes 2–4 per stem, the lowermost bracts leaflike, with well-developed sheaths. Terminal spike staminate, linear to narrowly oblanceolate in outline, the long stalk strongly roughened. Staminate scales oblong-obovate, blunt at the tip, purplish brown with a lighter, usually green midrib and white margins. Lateral spikes pistillate, loosely spaced along the upper 1/4–1/2 of the stem, none basal, linear to narrowly oblong in outline, short- to long-stalked, with 6–30 broadly ascending perigynia. Pistillate scales ovate, variously rounded, pointed, or short- to long-awned at the tip, purplish brown with a green midrib and white margins. Perigynia obovate in outline, broadest above the middle, very bluntly trigonous in cross-section, the sides flat or rounded, usually with 2 prominent, longitudinal ribs, otherwise with numerous strong, raised nerves, beakless or with a minute, smooth beak, this somewhat bent and truncate or oblique at the tip without teeth, tapered at the base, the surface smooth or nearly so, pale green to pale brown or nearly white, often somewhat glaucous, tightly enveloping the fruit. Styles withering during fruit development, jointed to the main body of the fruit, which is not or minutely beaked at maturity. Stigmas 3. Fruits obovate in outline, trigonous in cross-section with concave sides and blunt angles, brown to dark brown. Eleven species, North America to South America, Europe, Asia.