General:
Perennial, densely tufted grass from fibrous roots, sometimes from slender stolons; stems erect, smooth, 20-100 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, rough; leaves mostly at or near the base; blades smooth to more or less rough, usually in-rolled, appearing bristlelike, smooth below, up to 20 cm long, 0.3-2 mm wide; ligules blunt to pointed, 1-2.5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a loose, open, somewhat nodding panicle, to 15 cm long, 5-15 cm wide, the branches spreading, smooth or sparsely more or less prickly, the lowest ones in clusters of 2 to 5; spikelets purplish or silvery, 4-7 mm long, rarely rooting from apical bulbils, these small bulbs produced above ground, often on the flowering stem; rachillas prolonged by less than 1/4 the length of the upper florets; glumes 1-nerved, egg-shaped to lanceolate, sharp-pointed, the keels smooth, the lower ones 3-4.5 mm long, the upper ones long-pointed, 3.6-5.3 mm long; lemmas egg-shaped to cylindrical, more or less rough, squared-off and minutely toothed at the ends, 3-6 mm long, awned from near the base, the awns twisted below midlength, the top half somewhat divergent or abruptly bent 5-7 mm long, surpassing the lemmas by 1-5 mm, the callus hairs about 1 mm long; anthers linear, 2-3 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:
Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin.