General:
Annual tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems erect or abruptly bent, 8-45 (70) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth, occasionally glandular, fringed with fine hairs at summit, the hairs up to 3 mm long; blades 2-15 (20) cm long, 1-2.5 (4) mm wide, flat, more or less rough short-hairy above and smooth below; ligules 0.1-0.3 mm long, fringed with fine hairs.

Flowers:
Inflorescence an open, diffuse, ellipsoid to egg-shaped panicle, 4-20 (28) cm long, 2-15 (18) cm wide, the branches 1-10 cm long, spreading 10-80degree (110degree) from the stem axis, hairlike, whorled on the lowest 2 nodes, sparsely soft-hairy in the branch axils; spikelets (2) 3.5-6 (10) mm long, 0.6-1.3 mm wide, flattened, (3-) 5- to 17-flowered, loosely arranged, linear to oblong or narrowly egg-shaped, greyish; glumes 0.3-1.2 mm long, narrowly egg-shaped to lanceolate, translucent, the lower glumes 0.3-0.6 (0.8) mm long, 1-nerved, the upper glumes 0.7-1.2 mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas 1.2-1.8 mm long, egg-shaped or lanceolate, membranous to translucent, strongly nerved but the lateral nerves inconspicuous, greyish-green below, reddish-purple above, the tips sharp-pointed; paleas 1-1.6 mm long, easily deciduous, membranous to translucent, the tips rounded; stamens 3, anthers 0.2-0.3 mm long, purplish; caryopses 0.5-0.9 mm long, egg- to prism-shaped, both ends rounded, smooth to faintly lined, light brown.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia