Acuminata: Answers to key questions in Rushes, Bulrushes & Pondweeds plus the remaining Monocots of Saskatchewan by V. L. Harms, A. L. Leighton, and M. A. Vetter leading to this species. The answers are in the order you would normally work through the key. 

Flowers solitary and terminal at the ends of the branches of the inflorescence; stolons, if present, to 50 - 60 mm long.  NOT [Flowers few to many in glomerules; stolons absent.]

Plants 10 - 40 cm high; leaf blade apices obtuse, reddish, +/- swollen and callose; inflorescences 15 - 50 (60) mm long, umbellate to corymbose, of branches 8 - 40 mm long with a single terminal flower, rarely with a secondary single-flowered branch arising from near the base of a terminal flower of a primary branch; 5-22-flowered; primary bracts 10 - 20 (35) mm long; tepals (2.7) 3 - 3.6 (4.5) mm long; filaments 0.3 - 0.7 (1.2) mm long; anthers (0.5) 0.8 - 1.5 mm long, 1.5 - 3 times longer than filaments; styles 0.7 - 1.5 mm long, stigmas 1.4 - 2.6 mm long; capsules 3.2 - 5 mm long, stramineous to dark brown; seeds globose to subglobose, 2 - 3.5 mm long including 1 - 1.7 (2.1) mm curved yellowish to whitish caruncle at one end and 0.1 mm apiculum at other end.  NOT [Plants (20) 30 - 70 (90) cm high; leaf blade apices acute to acuminate, sometimes dark, not callose; inflorescences 80 - 150 (200) mm long, anthelate to paniculate, of branches 10 - 100 (130) mm long with a single terminal flower, usually with 1 or more secondary single-flowered branches arising from near the base of a terminal flower of a primary branch; 30 - 70-flowered; primary bracts (15) 20-60 (80) mm long; tepals 1.8 - 2.3 (2.5) mm long; filaments ca. 0.5 mm long; anthers 0.4 - 0.6 mm long, +/-  equal to filaments; styles ca. 0.5 mm long, stigmas 0.8 - 1.3 mm long; capsules 2 - 2.5 (2.6) mm long, reddish brown to dark brown; seeds ellipsoidal, 1.1 - 1.5 mm long including 0.1 - 0.2 mm long apicula, caruncles absent.]

Luzula: Answers to key questions in Rushes, Bulrushes & Pondweeds plus the remaining Monocots of Saskatchewan by V. L. Harms, A. L. Leighton, and M. A. Vetter leading to this genus. 

Leaves +/- flat and grass-like, sparsely to densely ciliate; sheaths closed (or sometimes partially splitting later), auricles absent; flowers with 1 - 2 floral bracteoles immediately below the tepals; capsules 1-locular, placentation basal; seeds 3.  NOT [Leaves various, glabrous; sheaths open, often with margins projected as auricles; flowers with or without a pair of floral bracteoles immediately below the tepals; capsules 1- or 3-locular (or pseudo- or incompletely-3-locular), placentation axile or parietal; seeds many.]

Juncaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family. 

	plants not aquatic, or if growing in water, most of the plant emersed; NOT [plants aquatic, floating or submerged, with floating leaves or emersed inflorescence]
	flowers not in globular heads; NOT [flowers in globular heads, the upper ones staminate, the lower ones pistillate]
	flowers in branched inflorescences; NOT [inflorescence a dense, single, cylindrical spike 8-15 cm long, 1-2.5 cm thick], NOT [flowers in spike-like racemes]
	perianth in two whorls, each of three segments
	perianth segments inconspicuous and scale-like; NOT [perianth segments conspicuous and often brightly colored], NOT [perianth of greenish sepals and petals]