General:
Perennial grass from short rhizomes, forming thick mats; stems slender, 20-40 (50) cm tall.

Leaves:
Leaves mostly basal and persistent; sheaths open, smooth to soft-hairy, the throats with numerous, stiff hairs mostly 1-1.5 (2) mm long, the collars usually smooth; blades 1-2 mm wide, flat, becoming crisp or curly in midwinter, smooth or commonly soft-hairy, the hairs from minutely blistery bases; ligules about 0.5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of 2 (sometimes 1 or 3), straight or crescent-shaped, racemose spikes, 1.5-4 (5) cm long, short-stalked; spikelets usually 30-80, unstalked in 2 rows on one side of the rachis, with a single perfect flower below 1 or 2 greatly reduced sterile flowers, often purplish, the rudimentary florets consisting of lemmas only with awns 5-6 mm long; glumes about 2-3 and 3-5 (5.5) mm long, the lower much smaller and narrower, 1-nerved, fringed with hairs and more or less blistery on the keels; lowermost (fertile) lemmas about 6 mm long including the central awn-tipped lobes, 3-nerved; paleas about equalling the bodies of the lemmas, 2-nerved; rachillas not prolonged; anthers about 3 mm long; lodicules about 0.3 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

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Early Summer

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present over the Summer

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Bouteloua gracilis var. stricta (Vasey) A.S. Hitchc.
Bouteloua oligostachya (Nutt.) Torr. ex A. Gray
Chondrosum gracile Willd. ex Kunth
Chondrosum oligostachyum (Nutt.) Torr.