General:
Perennial, strongly tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems hollow, 10-30 (35) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, smooth to minutely rough; blades of the stem leaves well-developed, erect, strongly in-rolled, scarcely 1 mm wide; ligules short-hairy on the outside, sharp-pointed, (2) 3-4 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a very narrow, raceme-like panicle, 3-6 cm long, the few short branches stiffly erect, appressed; glumes broad, nearly equal, faintly 3- to 5- (7-) nerved, 4-6 mm long; lemmas appressed-hairy, mostly equalling or slightly exceeding the glumes, awned from shortly bidentate tips, the awns stout, twisted, abruptly bent, 4-6 mm long; callus hairs lacking.

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:
Piptatherum exiguum (Thurb.) Dorn