General: Perennial tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems 10-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheath margins open 2/5-3/4 their length; blades 1-3 mm wide, flat, thin; ligules 1-2 mm long, the tips blunt to rounded, the backs smooth.
Flowers: Inflorescence a lax to nearly erect panicle, 2.5-10 cm long, sparse, open, the branches 1 to 2 per node, spreading to reflexed, hairlike, smooth; spikelets laterally compressed, 4-6 mm long, 3- to 5-flowered; glumes lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, thin, the lower ones 1-nerved; rachillas smooth, hairless; lemmas broadly lanceolate, 3-4 mm long, the tips sharp-pointed, usually purple-coloured, surface smooth, keel and marginal nerves silky-hairy, between nerves hairless; calluses sparsely cobwebby; palea keels smooth to rough; flowers bisexual; anthers 0.4-1 mm long.
Mesic to moist fellfields, snowbeds and meadows in the alpine zone; frequent throughout BC; amphiberingian, N to AK, YK and NT, E to AB and S to MT and N WA; 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)
