General:
Perennial, tough, wiry grass from well-developed rhizomes; stems semi-solid, 60-150 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, smooth to soft long-hairy, the hairs at the throats 2-3 mm long; blades 3-8 mm wide, strongly in-rolled, narrowed to long, slender tips; ligules scarcely 1 mm long, of short hairs.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a large, narrow to somewhat spreading panicle up to 40 cm long, the lower branches more or less spreading, 3-6 cm long; spikelets 1-flowered, articulating above the glumes, pale green to purplish; glumes (3.5) 4.5-7 mm long, long-pointed, the lower ones 1.5-2.5 mm shorter than the upper ones; lemmas usually intermediate in length between the 2 glumes, smooth, pointed to blunt, unawned, obscurely nerved, the callus hairs abundant, about 1/2 as long as the lemmas; rachillas not prolonged beyond the paleas; paleas from slightly shorter to longer than the lemmas; lodicules broadly egg-shaped, shallowly lobed, about 0.8 mm long and wide; ovaries smooth; anthers 0.5-4.5 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