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

General:
Annual grass from fibrous roots; stems pith-filled or hollow, decumbent to erect, the nodes smooth, (30) 60-160 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, more or less compressed; blades 4-16 mm wide; ligules absent.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a stiff panicle 5-12 cm long, the branches spreading to erect, usually at least 3 cm long, the spikelets borne singly or in clusters along 1 side of the branches; spikelets 3-4 mm long, 2-flowered, but the lower flowers sterile; upper glumes pointed to long-pointed, unawned; sterile lemmas equalling the upper glumes, long-pointed and bristle-tipped to awn-bearing, the awns up to 30 mm long; lemmas and paleas hardened, abruptly pointed to long-pointed, unawned.