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

General:
Perennial, densely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems 20-75 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth, blades mostly basal, 4-14 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat, finely rough short-hairy; ligules 2-5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence broadly egg-shaped, open, large, upright, 10-30 cm long, about as wide as long, very diffuse with hairlike, lax branches 8-25 cm long, frequently detaching at maturity, the lower branches 4-11 cm long, broadly spreading at maturity, branched 1 or 2 times above the middle, the spikelets few, broadly separated at the tips of the branches, not near the base; glumes 1.5-3 mm long, rough short-hairy on the keels; lemmas 1.5-2 mm long, awnless or sometimes awned from below the middle on the back, the awns to 2 mm long, more or less straight, the callus hairs minute; paleas absent or if present, minute, less than 1/4 as long as the lemmas; anthers 0.4-0.7 mm long.

Notes:
Agrostis perennans (Walt.) Tuckerm., hitherto regarded as an eastern species, has recently been found in WA and can be expected in BC. It differs from A. scabra in its slightly more condensed but still hairlike inflorescence and few or no basal leaves at flowering time but several well-developed stem leaves. It grows on moist to wet cliffs and streamsides. See also comments under A. idahoensis.