General:
Perennial grass from creeping rhizomes; stems hollow, erect, 25-85 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths usually minutely rough near the base; blades flat, 2-4 (5) mm wide, 4-16 cm long, rough- hairy below, hairy above; ligules membranous, jagged to fringed with fine hairs, squared-off at the tips, 0.5-1.5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow, spikelike, compact, densely flowered, interrupted or lobed panicle, 2-15 cm long, 5-24 (28) mm wide, the branches 0.5-5 cm long, appressed, ascending; spikelets 1-flowered, nearly unstalked to short-stalked; glumes very narrow, long-pointed to awn-tipped, 1-nerved, minutely rough on the nerve, usually minutely short-hairy, about equal, 2-4 mm long; lemmas lanceolate, greyish-green, the bodies from slightly shorter to somewhat longer than the glumes (not including the awn tips), 2-3.5 mm long, awned, the awns slender, terminal, (1) 4-10 mm long, the calluses bearded with numerous silky hairs nearly or fully as long as the lemmas; paleas lanceolate, almost equal to the lemmas, with silky hairs between the nerves near the base, the tips long-pointed; anthers 0.4-1.5 mm long, yellow.

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

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Muhlenbergia comata (Thurb.) Thurb. ex Benth.