E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial grass in small clusters from rhizomes; stems hollow, erect, 100-150 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths closed at the base but open for the upper 2-7 cm; blades flat, 3-7 mm wide, sometimes the uppermost reduced to barely 1 cm long; ligules minutely fringed with fine hairs, 1.5-3.5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a one-sided raceme, 10-25 cm long; spikelets 5 to 12, broadly spaced, becoming reflexed, loosely 7- to 11-flowered, up to 3 (3.5) cm long; glumes translucent, the lower ones about 4-5 mm long, the upper ones usually somewhat jagged-lobed, 6-7 (8) mm long; lemmas slightly rough, mostly 7-8 mm long, jagged to tri-lobed at the tips, prominently 7-nerved, awned, the awns 3-10 mm long; paleas slightly to considerably shorter than the lemmas, the wings of each keel prominent and free at the tips for 0.5-1 mm, unawned; anthers 3-4 mm long.