General: Perennial, densely to loosely tufted grass from fibrous roots, sometimes with stolons; stems erect or decumbent, 25-120 cm tall/long, some branching above base, uppermost node above middle.
Leaves: Top stem blade to sheath length ratio mostly 0.5-1.31; terminal sheath (3.3) 7-20 cm long, margins open 4/5 or more their length; sterile shoots all or most flowering within a season, next year's shoots set late in the growing season, breaking through sheath bases with indistinct two-keeled buds protecting the scales; shoots arising inside sheaths frequently present; basal leaves bladeless; blades 1.5-8 mm wide, mostly flat, often lax; ligules (1) 1.5-6 mm long, the tips rounded to sharp-pointed, frequently jagged, the backs sparsely to distinctly rough.
Flowers: Inflorescence a lax panicle, (10) 15-30 (40) cm long, sparse to moderately congested, eventually open, highly branched with many spikelets, the branches 2 to 9 per node, initially appressed, eventually widely spreading to slightly reflexed, distinctly rough on angles, the stalks shortly exserted; spikelets laterally compressed, 3-5 mm long, (1-) 2- to 5-flowered; lower glumes 3-nerved; rachilla internodes mostly less than 1 mm long, smooth, minutely bumpy, or sparsely short straight-hairy, not silky or minutely soft-hairy; lemmas lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, the tips usually bronze-coloured in part, sharp-pointed, the keels and marginal nerves short silky-hairy, hairless between the nerves, the tips frequently incurved and blunt; calluses sparsely to moderately densely cobwebby; palea keels rough; flowers bisexual; anthers 1.3-1.8 mm long.
Wet to moist disturbed areas, meadows, ditches, shrublands and riparian sites in the lowland and montane zones; frequent in S and W BC; circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, NY, SC, TN, MS, NE, NM, AZ and CA; Eurasia.
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)
