General:
Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots or short rhizomes, the tufts small; stems 40-120 cm tall, usually decumbent at the base, the nodes exposed, occasionally with dense short hairs pointing downward.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth to rough, or occasionally with dense, short, purplish hairs; blades 4-12 mm wide, lax, flat, deep green, dense-hairy above; ear-shaped lobes sometimes lacking at the leaf-bases, if present then up to 1.5 mm long; ligules finely fringed, up to 1 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a spike 6-20 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, nodding or drooping, with (1) 2 or 3 spikelets per node; spikelets 12-20 mm long, overlapping, sometimes purplish, with 2 to 4 (7) fertile florets; glumes 7-10 (11) mm long, the margins transparent, awned, the awns 1-10 mm long; lemmas 7-12 mm long, with short hairs on the nerves and along the edges, otherwise smooth to rough throughout, awned, the awns 8-30 mm long, usually noticeably curving outward; anthers 2-3.5 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