General: Perennial, loosely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems 15-50 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths minutely rough-hairy, the margins open 2/5-3/4 their length; blades 1-4 mm wide, flat, thin, weakly prow-tipped; ligules 1.5-4 mm long, the tips blunt to rounded, the backs smooth or slightly rough.
Flowers: Inflorescence a lax panicle, 5-15 cm long, sparse, open, the branches 1 to 3 (5) per node, spreading to reflexed, hairlike, slightly rough to rough on angles; spikelets laterally compressed, 4-8 mm long, 2- to 5-flowered; glumes awl-like to narrowly lanceolate, thin, the lower 1-nerved; rachillas smooth, hairless; lemmas broadly lanceolate, 3-4 mm long, the tips narrowly sharp-pointed, usually bronze or purple-coloured, surface thinly membranous, smooth, the keels (up to 2/3 the length) and marginal nerves sparsely silky-hairy, hairless between the nerves; calluses sparsely cobwebby; palea keels smooth, slightly rough or comb-like; flowers bisexual; anthers 0.2-1.1 mm long.
Wet to moist meadows, streams and bogs in the subalpine and alpine zones; frequent throughout BC except absent in NE BC; amphiberingian, N to AK and SW YT and S to NM, AZ and CA; E Asia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
