General: Perennial, densely tufted grass from fibrous roots and rhizomes; stems stout, 60-100 cm or more tall, with 2 to 3 nodes.
Leaves: Sheaths loosely open at the stem base; leaf blades flat to folded, 4-7 (10) mm wide, to 28 cm long; ligules 1-4 mm long, often hidden by the expanded collars.
Flowers: Inflorescence a somewhat loose but narrow and erect panicle, 12-30 cm long, its branches 5-7 (10) cm long, bearing spikelets on the upper 1/2; spikelets 1-flowered; glumes 5-7 (8) mm long, long-pointed, smooth to rough, especially on the keels; lemmas 4-5 mm long; minutely 4-toothed at the tips, awned, awn straight or weakly twisted and bent, attached near the middle of the lemmas, reaching to about the lemma tips, the callus hairs of unequal lengths, 1.5-2 mm long; rachillas 0.5-1 mm long, with scant hairs to 1 mm long; anthers 3 mm long.
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)
A shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to subalpine (in hypermaritime climates). Pacific North American grass. Occurs in hypermaritime to maritime summer-wet cool mesothermal climates on very moist to wet, nitrogenmedium soils; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation and continentality. Scattered to abundant on water-shedding and water-receiving sites in ocean-exposed forests of west Vancouver Island, central mainland, and Queen Charlotte Islands. Also inhabits non-forested littoral sites (beaches, marshes, and rocky shores) that are affected by ocean spray, fog, and/or brackish water. Characteristic of hypermaritime forests.
