Central and eastern United States.
Stems erect to sometimes ascending or rarely prostrate, branched, rarely simple, usually (0.5-)1-2(-3) m. Leaves: petiole 1/4-1/2 length of blade; blade ovate or obovate proximally, oblong or elliptic to narrowly lanceolate distally, 1.5-15 × 0.5-3 cm, base cuneate, margins entire, plane, apex obtuse or rounded to acute. Inflorescences terminal, linear spikes to panicles, occasionally interrupted-moniliform, remote, globose glomerules. Bracts: of pistillate flowers 1-2 mm; of staminate flowers with inconspicuous to prominent midrib, 1-2 mm, apex acuminate to short-subulate. Pistillate flowers: tepals absent or 1-2, often rudimentary, 1-3 mm; style branches ± erect; stigmas 3. Staminate flowers: tepals 5, inner tepals with prominent midribs excurrent as rigid spines or not, equal to unequal, 2-3 mm, apex obtuse to acute or acuminate or indistinctly mucronulate; stamens 5. Utricles dark brown to reddish brown, not ribbed, obovoid to subglobose, 1.5-2 mm, thin, almost smooth or irregularly rugose, indehiscent, irregularly dehiscent, or dehiscence regularly circumscissile. Seeds dark reddish brown to dark brown, 0.7-1 mm diam., shiny.
- Provided by: [B].Flora of North America @ efloras.org