General: Perennial, more or less densely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems mostly smooth, 5-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths not conspicuous at the base of the stems, splitting between the nerves or remaining entire, usually not shredding into fibres; blades (2) 10-20 cm long, 0.35-0.65 mm wide, folded, angular and more or less irregular-hexagonal in cross-section with weakly developed sclerenchyma strands; ligules 0.1-0.3 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a narrow, spikelike panicle, 1.5-4 (5.5) cm long, the branches 0.2-1.2 cm long; spikelets 2- to 4- (6-) flowered, 4-8.5 mm long; lower glumes 1.2-3.3 mm long, the upper ones (2.4) 2.9-4.6 mm long; lemmas 3-5.2 mm long, awned, the awns 0.8-3.5 mm, usually less than 2.5 mm long, the lowermost lemmas 3-4.2 mm long; anthers (0.5) 0.7-1.1 (1.3) mm long; ovary tops smooth.
Mesic to dry rocky slopes, scree slopes and moraines in the alpine zone; frequent throughout BC in and E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to MN, CO, AZ and CA; Greenland, Eurasia.
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)