Leaves: Sheaths open, minutely rough, short appressed-hairy, or soft-hairy, the basal sheaths smooth; blades flat, minutely rough to soft-hairy, (2) 4-11 (12) mm wide, the margins rough or with hairs 2-3 mm long near the ligules; ligules smooth to hairy, irregularly jagged to shallowly jagged, fringed with fine hairs, 1.5-4 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a large, open or narrow, drooping to ascending panicle, 10-30 cm long, the branches more or less threadlike, bearing spikelets mainly towards the tips; spikelets with 2 or 3 perfect florets and 1 or 2 sterile upper lemmas; rachillas with joints about 2-3 mm long, the hairs about twice as long as the callus hairs; lower glumes narrow, mostly only 1-4 (5) mm long, the upper ones much wider, 3.5-6 (8) mm long, but usually shorter than the lower florets; lemmas 5-7 mm long, toothed, the teeth about 2 mm long, awned, the awns ascending, zig-zagged, about 10-14 mm long, the callus hairs scarcely 1 mm long; lodicules about 1-1.5 mm long; anthers 1-2.2 mm long.
Moist to dry meadows, forest openings, grasslands and shrublands in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in coastal BC, less frequent eastward; N to AK, E to AB and S to WY, AZ and CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
