General:
Perennial grass from well-developed rhizomes, occasionally from stolons; stems solid, decumbent to erect, slightly flattened, smooth, 10-60 (100) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth, slightly keeled and compressed near the base, strongly over-lapping; blades crowded, flat, occasionally folded, 1-2.8 (4) mm wide, 2-7 (11) cm long, smooth to minutely rough beneath, minutely rough above; ligules firm, fringed with fine hairs, squared-off at the tips, 0.2-1 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence an open, broadly egg-shaped panicle, 6-21 cm long, (2.5) 4-15 cm wide, ultimately deciduous, the branches hairlike, 3-12 cm long, ascending, spreading 30-90degree from stem axis at maturity; spikelets occasionally 2- or 3-flowered, on long, slender, hairlike stalks; glumes purplish, more or less below, especially along the nerves, 1-nerved, slightly unequal, 0.6-1.7 mm long, the tips sharp-pointed; lemmas lanceolate to oblong-elliptical, somewhat greyish, smooth, occasionally minutely rough near the tips, 1.2-2.1 mm long, somewhat longer than the glumes (up to 1/2 again as long), sharp-pointed, unawned or minutely awn-tipped; paleas lanceolate, smooth, 1.2-2.1 mm long, the tips sharp-pointed; anthers 1-1.3 mm long, greenish-yellow to purplish at maturity.

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:
Purple

Blooming Period:
Early Summer

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

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Sporobolus asperifolius (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Nees