General:
Perennial, tufted grass from thick, ascending rhizomes forming large clumps; stems erect, stout, usually finely but copiously hairy or sometimes smooth above, 50-150 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, smooth; blades tough, very finely minutely rough appressed-hairy on the upper surfaces and smooth underneath, with numerous prominent nerves, flat to in-rolled, 6-15 mm wide; ear-shaped lobes usually developed at some leaf-bases; ligules more or less fringed with fine hairs, scarcely 1 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a stout spike, (10) 15-30 cm long, 1-2 cm wide; spikelets paired, 4- to 6-flowered, unstalked or if occasionally short-stalked then inflorescence slightly compounded, 20-30 (33) mm long; glumes lanceolate, usually soft-hairy but sometimes only sparsely short-hairy, prominently 3- to 6-nerved and flat, at least at the base, usually membranous-margined, long-pointed, mostly nearly equal to the spikelets, 15-25 mm long, awn-tipped; lemmas generally copiously soft-hairy but rarely only sparsely hairy, mostly prominently-nerved, membranous-margined, 10-20 mm long, long-pointed to abruptly slender-tipped, but scarcely awned; anthers 5-9 mm long.

Notes:
A hybrid between Leymus mollis and Elymus glaucus, known only from Ucluelet and Gold River, has been named Leymus x uclueletensis (Bowden) Baum (Elymus x uclueletensis Bowden). A second hybrid, which is infrequent in SW BC, Leymus x vancouverensis (Vasey) Pilger (Elymus vancouverensis Vasey), has been proposed as a hybrid between Leymus mollis and L. triticoides (Buckl.) Pilger. See Hitchcock et al. (1969) for more detailed descriptions of these hybrids.

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

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Late Spring

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Summer to Fall

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Elymus arenarius
Elymus arenarius subsp. mollis (Trin.) Hultén
Elymus arenarius var. scabrinervis (Bowden) B. Boivin
Elymus arenarius var. villosus E. Mey.
Elymus capitatus Scribn.
Elymus mollis Trin.
Elymus mollis var. mollis
Leymus arenarius subsp. mollis (Trin.) Tzvelev