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.

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:
Festuca decumbens L.
Sieglingia decumbens