General: Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems erect (sometimes becoming decumbent and creeping in lawns), hollow, hairy above and below the nodes, (20) 50-100 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths open, velvety-hairy, greyish; blades 3-10 mm wide and up to 25 cm long, flat, velvety-hairy, greyish; ligules strongly hairy, eroded-jagged and more or less fringed with fine hairs, blunt to sharp-pointed, 1-2 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a greyish, purplish-tinged panicle, 4-15 cm long; spikelets 2-flowered, the upper floret male, tawny, short-stalked, 5-6 mm long; glumes 3-4 mm long, more or less stiff long-hairy, especially on the nerves, the upper ones much wider than the lower ones, often with very short awns almost at the tips; lemmas about 2 mm long, smooth or slightly short-hairy above, shiny, the lower ones unawned, the upper ones awned, the awns hooked, shorter than the glumes; rachillas sparsely stiff-hairy or sometimes smooth, anthers about 1.5 mm long; lodicules broadly lanceolate, nearly entire, up to 0.5 mm long.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-intolerant, sub montane to montane, European grass introduced to North America (transcontinental in North America). Occurs on fresh to very moist, nitrogen-medium soils within temperate, cool semiarid, and mesothermal climates; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation. Commonly inhabits exposed mineral soil; scattered to plentiful in early-seral communities on water-shedding and water-receiving sites. Characteristic of disturbed sites.
