General: Perennial grass from conspicuous rhizomes; stems smooth, 20-100 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths smooth; basal leaves in loose tufts, shorter than the stem leaves; blades 1-4.5 mm wide, 2-26 cm long, the leaves decreasing in length upwards, the nerves prominent on the upper surfaces; ligules up to 0.1 mm long, membranous; ear-shaped lobes at the leaf-bases 0.2-1 mm long, clasping the stems.
Flowers: Inflorescence a terminal, 2-ranked spike, 5-17 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, with 1 spikelet per node, occasionally the spikelets paired; spikelets 2- to 12-flowered, 12-26 mm long; glumes lanceolate, unequal, rigid, somewhat curved, 5-15 mm long, 3-5 nerved from midlength or lower; lemmas 6-14 mm long, unawned or with awns 0.5-5 mm long.
Moist to mesic slopes in the steppe and montane zones; infrequent in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, locally common in NE BC (Peace River grasslands); E to PQ and S to ME, MA, NY, GA, TN, TX, NM, AZ, NV and OR.
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)
