General:
Perennial grass from rhizomes; stems erect to more or less decumbent, hollow, up to 70-150 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths somewhat flattened, apparently smooth, but minutely rough, closed at the base but open above; blades 4-8 (12) mm wide, flat or folded, minutely rough to more or less pimpled or just minutely rough on the upper surfaces, minutely rough on the lower surfaces; ligules pointed, entire to irregularly jagged, smooth or sparsely hairy, 7-12 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow panicle 20-50 cm long, the branches mostly ascending or sometimes spreading; spikelets mostly 6- to 13-flowered, linear, 15-22 mm long; glumes broad, the margins lightly jagged and more or less fringed with fine hairs at the tips, the lower ones about 1.5 mm long, the upper ones at least twice as long; lemmas 5-6 mm long, prominently 7-nerved, finely rough on the nerves and over the back, slightly jagged and more or less fringed with fine hairs at the blunt tips; paleas shorter than the lemmas; stamens 3; anthers 1.1-1.6 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

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Glyceria occidentalis (Piper) J.C. Nels.