General: Perennial, coarsely tufted grass from short, smooth to strongly short-hairy rhizomes forming large clumps up to 1 m wide; stems solitary or in groups, usually finely short-hairy or smooth, especially near the nodes, 70-220 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths open; blades tough, rough to sometimes finely hairy, mostly flat, (5) 8-20 mm wide; ear-shaped lobes usually well-developed at some leaf-bases; ligules usually short-hairy, membranous, (2) 3-7 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a stiff, erect spike, (9) 12-20 (25) cm long, sometimes compound, the lateral branches with as many as 5 or 6 spikelet-bearing nodes; spikelets sometimes paired, but usually 3 or more per node, (3-) 4- to 6-flowered, often 1 or more stalked; glumes narrow, awl-like, tapered from the base, 10-20 mm long, often as long as the spikelets; lemmas smooth to inconspicuously hairy, about 10-15 mm long, unawned or more usually awn-tipped, the awns 2-7 mm long; anthers 3-6 mm long.
Moist to dry, usually gravelly or sandy sites, ravines, streambanks and roadsides in the steppe and montane zones; frequent in SC BC, infrequent in SE BC; E to SK and S to MN, NM, AZ and CA.
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)
