General:
Annual grass from fibrous roots, basally branching; stems decumbent to erect, up to 100 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths keeled, smooth; blades flat to folded, 4-11 mm wide, more or less pimpled or soft-hairy on the upper surfaces near the base, the hairs 2-4 mm long; ligules with the membranous basal portions about as long as the fringes, scarcely 1 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a cylindrical panicle, mostly 4-10 cm long, about 1 cm wide when pressed; spikelets 2-flowered, 3-3.6 mm long, each subtended by (4) 5 or 6 (20), stiff short, yellow bristles that are up to 3 times as long as the spikelet, the bristles directed upwards; lower glumes 3-nerved, 1/3 the length of the spikelets, the upper ones 5-nerved, 2/3 as long; lower flowers male or sterile, the upper fertile, the lower flowers with lemmas that include well-developed paleas just as long; fertile lemmas finely but distinctly cross-wrinkled.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Chaetochloa glauca (L.) Scribn.
Chaetochloa lutescens (Weigel) Stuntz
Panicum glaucum L.
Setaria glauca (L.) P. Beauv.
Setaria glauca sensu Vickery
Setaria lutescens (Weigel) F.T. Hubbard