Compilation
Mariscus riparius

glabrous, robust; stem 1 1/2–3 ft. long, 1/6 in. in diam., obtusely trigonous, smooth; leaves often as long as the stem by 1/3 in. broad, nearly flat when dry, thick, somewhat spongy, transversely lineolate, often scabrous on the margins near the tip and on the midrib beneath; rays of umbel 6–14, up to 3–5 in. long; bracts 6–8, up to 20 in. long, similar to the leaves; spikes very dense, 1–3, confluent at the apex of each ray in the normal form (but see var. β, γ, δ), often 1 by 1/2 in.; spikelets 1/5 by 1/16 in., maturing 3–1 nuts, dull red-brown, suberect even in fruit, not much compressed; rhachilla disarticulating below the lowest fertile glume, wings elliptic; glumes elliptic-oblong, obtuse, hardly keeled, 9-striate; stamens 3; nut 2/3 as long as the glume, trigonous, linear-oblong, black; style short, branches 3 linear. null