General:
Perennial grass from well-developed, scaly, creeping rhizomes, often matted; stems solid, decumbent or erect, slightly flattened, minutely more or less knobby-roughened, greater than 1 mm wide, 5-30 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths smooth; blades flat or in-rolled, straight or curved-spreading, smooth below, more or less stiff-hairy above, 0.4-6.5 cm long, 0.5-4.2 mm wide; ligules membranous, the tips sharp-pointed to squared-off, ragged, 0.8-3 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a narrow, compact, spikelike, loosely flowered, exserted panicle, 1-15 cm long, 0.1-1.7 cm wide, the branches 0.4-5 cm long, appressed, rarely ascending, spreading up to 20degree from the stem axis; spikelets 1- or 2-flowered, nearly unstalked or short-stalked; glumes green, more or less rough below, 1- (occasionally 2-) nerved, the midnerves very prominent, nearly equal, 0.6-2 mm long, 1/3-1/2 the length of the lemmas, the tips sharp-pointed, sometimes minutely awn-tipped, the awns less 0.2 mm long; lemmas lanceolate, dark greenish or mottled, smooth, about 1.7-2.6 (3.1) mm long, the tips sharp-pointed to long-pointed, minutely rough, sometimes minutely awn-tipped, the awns up to 0.5 mm long, the calluses not bearded; paleas lanceolate, 1-2.4 (2.9) mm long, the tips sharp-pointed; anthers 0.9-1.6 mm long, yellow to purplish.

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:
Green

Blooming Period:
Early Summer

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

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Muhlenbergia squarrosa (Trin.) Rydb.