General:
Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems 10-40 (50) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open; blades flat to somewhat in-rolled, 1.5-3.5 mm wide; ligules entire, rounded, about 1 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence an ultimately open panicle, 5-15 cm long, the branches rough, spreading to reflexed, the lower branches of fruiting inflorescences usually descending, occasionally spreading; spikelets (3-) 5- to 6-flowered, the spikelet stalks usually uniformly rough; glumes egg-shaped, usually minutely more or less fringed with fine hairs, the lower ones barely 1 mm long, the upper ones (1.5) 2 mm long; lemmas broadly egg-shaped, the margins entire below, roughly sharp-toothed near the tips, often more or less fringed with fine hairs, sparsely hairy near the base, (1.4) 1.6-1.8 (2) mm long, broadly rounded to blunt and jagged at the tips; paleas usually equalling or slightly exceeding the lemmas; lodicules barely 0.5 mm long; anthers 0.5-0.8 mm long.

Notes:
Generally recognized as introduced but some populations with branches of the fruiting inflorescence nondescending, including some in BC, are possibly intergradational with P. nuttalliana, and may be native.

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