E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems disarticulating at the nodes, 8-60 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth or soft-hairy; blades 0.5-4 mm wide, 5-15 cm long, smooth or sparsely soft-hairy, usually flat; ligules less than 1 mm long, fringed with short hairs.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow panicle with up to 15 spikelets on erect branches, the lower branches with 1 to 3 spikelets; spikelets 6-15 mm long; lemmas 5-6 mm long, smooth or hairy on the margins, awned, the awns reduced to short, sharp abrupt points between the two teeth at the tips (lemmas appearing 3-cleft), the calluses with tufts of stiff hairs laterally; florets of terminal inflorescences usually small, closed, self-fertilized, with 3 tiny anthers 0.2-0.4 mm long, rarely with the latter florets open and then with anthers to about 2 mm long.