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

General:
Perennial grass from rhizomes to about 10 cm long, rhizomes sometimes absent, not forming a turf and including many non-flowering shoots; stems 10-70 cm tall, scattered.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth; blades 1.5-5 cm long, 1-6 mm wide, flat, becoming in-rolled; ligules 1.5-6 mm long, rough-hairy outside.

Flowers:
Inflorescence lanceolate to narrowly constricted, at least twice as long as wide, the branches ascending, 2-5 cm long; spikelets numerous; glumes 2-3 mm long; lemmas 1.5-2.5 mm long, awnless or rarely with straight awns to 0.5 mm long, from below the tips, calluses with sparse hairs to 0.25 mm long; paleas absent or if present, thin membranes to 0.2 mm long; anthers 1-1.7 mm long.

Notes:
This is a rare species or group of species formerly thought to be confined to sand dunes but now known to occur inland in habitats subject to extreme summer drought.