General: Perennial, tufted grass, sometimes from short rhizomes, otherwise from fibrous roots; stems erect, 90-150 (200) cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths smooth; blades in-rolled in young shoots, 4-12 mm wide; ear-shaped lobes at the leaf-bases sickle-shaped, slightly wavy or obscure, sparsely fringed with fine hairs on the margins; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm long, membranous.
Flowers: Inflorescence an open or stiffly erect, simple panicle, 10-35 cm long; spikelets 3- to 6- (9-) flowered, stalked, 8-15.5 mm long, each with 2 glumes; lower glumes 3-6 mm long, upper glumes 4.5-7 (9) mm long; lemmas (4) 5-9 (11.5) mm long, rough short-hairy or short bristlelike at least near the tips (rarely smooth), sometimes unawned, or if awned, the awns 0.3-2 (4) mm long, terminal or attached up to 0.4 mm below the tips; anthers 2.5-4 mm long.
Notes: An important crop grown for seed production (primarily in the Peace River District), forage, soil stabilization, and coarse turf, it is increasingly planted in various habitats and becoming broadly adventive.
Dry to wet seepages, pastures, fields, meadows, roadsides and disturbed areas in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; infrequent in SW BC, rare eastward in S BC; introduced from 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)
