General: Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems numerous, slender, (10) 25-80 (100) cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths open, usually smooth; blades smooth to more or less rough short-hairy, the basal leaves tufted, the blades threadlike, flat or folded or sometimes in-rolled, mostly only 2-4 cm long, but rarely over 1.5 mm wide, the stem blades sometimes flat; ligules entire but usually split, short-hairy, sharp- to long-pointed, 3-9 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a narrow, pale greenish to purple panicle, 5-30 cm long, the slender branches ascending-erect; glumes 3-nerved, long-pointed, nearly equal, equalling or exceeding the upper florets; rachilla joints with hairs about as long as the calluses; lemmas firm, smooth, shining, often more or less rough short-hairy, (2) 2.5 (3) mm long, the tips blunt, jagged, awned from just below midlength, the awns nearly straight, about 3-4 mm long, the calluses with hairs half as long as the lemmas; paleas nearly equal to the lemmas; lodicules lanceolate, entire, 0.1-0.2 mm long; anthers about 0.5 mm long.
Moist to mesic streambanks, shorelines, open forests, clearings and meadows from the lowland to alpine zones; frequent in S BC; N to AK and S YT, E to SW AB and S to NM, AZ, MX and CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
