General:
Perennial grass from fibrous roots, but sometimes rooting at the lower nodes; stems smooth to hairy at the nodes, 60-150 (200) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths usually open for 1-2 cm, strongly soft-hairy to smooth with long fine hairs at the throats; blades (4) 6-10 (15) mm wide, flat, commonly sparsely soft-hairy at least on the upper surfaces, but sometimes smooth; ear-shaped lobes lacking at the leaf-bases; ligules strongly hairy, jagged, brown, 2-5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence an open, nodding panicle, 15-30 cm long, the branches elongate, spreading to drooping, usually bearing spikelets only towards the tips; spikelets loosely (5-) 7- to 11-flowered, somewhat compressed, 20-30 (35) mm long; florets small, closed, self-fertilizing; glumes lanceolate, usually short-hairy, long-pointed, the lower ones 1 (3)-nerved, 6-9 mm long, the upper ones 3- (5- to 7-) nerved, 9-10 mm long; lemmas rough to short-hairy evenly over the entire surface, rounded to slightly keeled on the backs, 11-14 mm long, the tips long-pointed, shallowly bidentate, awned, the awns 4-10 mm long; anthers exserted, 1-3 (4) mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Bromopsis pacifica (Shear) Holub