General:
Annual, simple to somewhat tufted grass from fibrous roots, smooth; stems 5-50 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open; leaves mostly basal; blades threadlike, usually in-rolled, smooth to rough below, barely 1 (1.5) mm wide; ligules entire, hairy, sharp- to long-pointed, (1) 3-6 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow to widely spreading panicle, up to 25 cm long, sometimes reduced to a simple raceme; glumes 3-nerved, smooth to more or less rough, long-pointed, usually slightly exceeding the upper florets, the lower glumes 1-nerved, usually slightly longer than the upper glumes, 5-8 mm long; rachilla joints with hairs about as long as the calluses; lemmas firm, 5-nerved, smooth, shining, often purplish, about 2.5 mm long, the tips blunt, jagged and more or less fringed with fine hairs, awned from below midlength, the awns abruptly bent, about 5 mm long, the calluses strongly stiff-hairy about 1 mm long; paleas nearly equal to the lemmas; lodicules lanceolate, 0.2-0.3 mm long; anthers 0.3-0.5 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

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Mid Spring

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

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Aira danthonioides Trin.
Deschampsia calycina J. Presl
Deschampsia danthonioides var. gracilis (Vasey) Munz