General:
Perennial, tufted grass from short, thick rhizomes, bulbous-based, the bulbs clustered; stems erect, 30-80 (110) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths closed nearly or quite to the tops, but often split at maturity, sparsely to copiously spreading-hairy to merely minutely rough-hairy; blades minutely rough- to crisp-hairy or sparsely stiff-hairy on the upper surfaces, minutely rough to smooth beneath, 2-7 mm wide, flat; ligules often closed but frequently split, eroded-jagged to somewhat irregular-jagged, smooth, 1-5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow panicle 10-20 cm long, the few branches ascending to erect, but occasionally spreading; spikelets loosely 2- to 5-flowered, somewhat compressed, 12-20 mm long; glumes abruptly sharp-pointed to long-pointed, the lower ones about 5-6.5 mm long, obscurely 3-nerved, the upper glumes 7.5-9 mm long, lightly (5) 7-nerved; lemmas more or less fringed with fine hairs on the margins and nerves below, obscurely 7-nerved, strongly tapering and long-pointed, 9-13 mm long, unawned; anthers about 1.5 (2) 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

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Mid Spring

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

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Melica subulata var. subulata (Griseb.) Scribn.