General:
Annual, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems hollow, mostly 10-30 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, usually smooth; blades 1-2 mm wide, flat, minutely rough to soft-hairy, the lower margins usually fringed with soft hairs; ear-shaped lobes at the leaf-bases up to 0.5 mm long or these sometimes lacking; ligules 0.5-2 mm long, the margins minutely eroded, blunt to pointed.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow, congested panicle, 1.5-4 cm long; glumes pointed, rough short-hairy to short-hairy, the lower ones 4-5 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper ones 8-10 mm long, 3-nerved; sterile lemmas about equal, about 3 mm long, narrow, rounded and shallow-notched at the tips, soft-hairy to stiff-hairy, the margins quite eroded at the tips, the first ones awned from the back somewhat above the midlength, the awns about 3 mm long, the second ones awned from well below the midlength, the awns 7-10 mm long, twisted and abruptly bent; fertile lemmas about 2 mm long, more or less firm, smooth, pale brown; paleas nearly equal to the lemmas; anthers 4-5 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