E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial grass from fibrous roots, with scattered shoots; stems 12-35 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth; blades 1-5 cm long, 0.5-2 mm wide, flat, becoming in-rolled; ligules 1-3 mm long, slightly rough on the outside.

Flowers:
Inflorescence open, lanceolate to broadly egg-shaped, at least twice as long as wide, 3-10 (13) cm long, the branches spreading to ascending, the lower ones 1-4 cm long; spikelets broadly separated, sparse; glumes 1.5-2.5 mm long; lemmas 1.2-2 mm long, awnless, the callus hairs to 0.3 mm long; paleas absent or if present, as thin membranes less than 1/4 as long as the lemmas; anthers 0.3-0.5 mm long.

Notes:
This species is often confused with the larger-panicled A. scabra and the awned A. mertensii.