General:
Perennial, strongly tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems hollow, erect, up to 150 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths closed, more or less compressed, smooth to slightly rough; blades (2) 3-11 mm wide, flat, mostly somewhat rough, usually the 2 margins freed from the sheaths at different levels; ligules mostly 3-9 mm long, membranous, generally sparsely hairy, blunt to pointed, the margins finely jagged, fringed with small hairs, the upper halves usually turned back and split in several places.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a panicle 3-15 cm long, the branches stiffly ascending to spreading or even reflexed (the lower ones); spikelets strongly to one side in dense clusters, compressed, 3- to 5-flowered, 5-9 mm long, nearly unstalked, articulating above the glumes; glumes 4-6 mm long, keeled, the keels fringed with stiff hairs, usually 2 (3)-nerved, the tips short, soft and awnlike, the lower glumes lopsided, the upper narrower and usually 1-nerved; lemmas 5-8 mm long, keeled, the keels fringed with hairs above, awned, the awns about 1 mm long; paleas nearly equal to the lemmas, long-pointed, nerved, the nerves fringed with short hairs; lodicules short, membranous, scarcely 0.5 mm long; anthers about 4 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:
Mid Spring

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Spring to Summer

Source:  The USDA