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

General:
Perennial, densely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems erect to spreading, stiff, wiry, straight or slightly decumbent, 5-40 cm tall, usually with 0 or 1 node exserted, uppermost node usually in lowermost 1/3 of stem.

Leaves:
Sheath margins open 4/5-9/10 their length, top stem sheath 3-10 cm long; sterile shoots all or most flowering within a season, next year's shoots set late in the growing season, mostly breaking through sheath bases with indistinct two-keeled buds protecting the scales; basal bladeless leaves present; blades 0.8-2.5 mm wide, mostly flat, appressed or abruptly ascending to spreading, stiff, soon withering; top stem blades usually distinctly shorter than their sheaths (length ratio mostly 0.25-11); ligules 1-4 (5) mm long, the tips rounded to sharp-pointed, minutely rough, the backs more or less finely rough.

Flowers:
Inflorescence an erect panicle, 1-10 cm long, narrowly lanceolate to egg-shaped, contracted or open, sparingly branched and flowered, lowermost internodes less than 1 cm long (rarely more), the primary branches 2 to 3 (5) per node, ascending to spreading, stout, moderately to distinctly rough on angles (rarely nearly smooth), the stalks long-exserted, the spikelet stalks mostly shorter than spikelets; spikelets laterally compressed, 3-8 mm long, (2-) 3- to 5-flowered; glumes narrowly to broadly lanceolate, the keels distinct, the lower ones 3-nerved; rachilla internodes mostly less than 1 mm long, smooth, minutely bumpy, or rough, or hairless or frequently sparsely short straight-haired to moderately minutely soft-hairy; lemmas lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, keeled, 2.5-4 mm long, the tips usually bronze-coloured in part, sharp-pointed, keels and marginal nerves short silky-hairy, lateral nerves usually short silky-hairy or sparsely minutely soft-hairy, between nerves hairless or minutely crisp- to soft-hairy; calluses hairless or cobwebby, often minutely so; palea keels rough, hairless or medially minutely soft-hairy; flowers bisexual (some appearing female-like due to aborted anthers); anthers (1) 1.2-2.5 mm long, well-developed or infrequently aborted late in development.

Notes:
Two subspecies occur in BC:

1. Lemmas short-hairy between the nerves; calluses of all florets entirely hairless; dwarf alpine plants.................... ssp. rupicola (Nash) W.A. Weber

1. Lemmas variously short-hairy or hairy; calluses webbed or not; if dwarf alpine plants, then calluses of at least the basal florets within a spikelet with at least a vestige of a web or the lemmas smooth between the nerves.................... ssp. glauca