General: Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems hollow, 30-60 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths open, usually smooth; blades (2) 3-7 mm wide, flat, usually slightly soft-hairy or fringed with soft hairs at least near the base, the hairs 1-2 mm long, with ear-shaped lobes at the leaf-bases well developed; ligules (1) 2-3 mm long, membranous, the margins minutely fringed with small hairs.
Flowers: Inflorescence a narrow, congested panicle, 2-9 cm long, tawny; glumes pointed, rough short-hairy, the lower ones 4-5 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper ones 8-10 mm long, 3-nerved; sterile lemmas more or less equal, about 3 mm long, narrow, rounded and shallow-notched at the tips, soft-hairy to stiff-hairy, 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, firm, smooth, brown; paleas nearly equal to the lemmas; anthers 4-5 mm long.
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.
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)
Mesic to dry lawns, fields, waste areas, rock outcrops and meadows in the lowland zone; common on S Vancouver Island, rare N to the Queen Charlotte Islands; introduced from Eurasia.