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

General:
Perennial, strongly tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems smooth to soft-hairy, (20) 30-60 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheath margins usually not overlapping above, the collars often with long, straight hairs 1-1.5 mm long; blades 1-2 (4.5) mm wide, 2-6 (20) cm long, sometimes flat, but usually folded to in-rolled, usually rough to densely hairy or short stiff-hairy or both, rarely smooth, often greyish, the margins at the insertions often with long, straight hairs 1-1.5 mm long, the tips strongly prowlike; ligules 0.5-2 mm long, strongly hairy, jagged to nearly entire, more or less fringed with fine hairs.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a spikelike panicle, 4-13 cm long, the short branches spreading at flowering; spikelets 2- (3- or 4-) flowered; glumes unawned or rarely awn-tipped, the lower ones 3.5 mm long, the upper ones 4-6 mm long, somewhat wider than the lower ones and about equalling or slightly exceeding the lower florets, sparsely to copiously rough short-hairy; lemmas 3.5-5 mm long, minutely rough to short-hairy, unawned or awn-tipped; anthers about 2 (2.5) mm long.

Notes:
A general consensus has yet to be reached regarding which name is best for this species. For a discussion of the problems involved see Hitchcock et al. (1969609) and Holmgren and Holmgren (1977254).