General: Perennial, loosely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems erect, to about 100 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths closed almost to the tops; blades 2-4 (5) mm wide, folded or loosely in-rolled, usually smooth; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a zig-zagged or loosely erect panicle 7-13 (17) cm long; spikelets 11.5-17 mm long, 3- to 6-flowered; glumes pointed, membranous, smooth, the lower 4.2-6.2 mm long, the upper 6-8.5 (9) mm long; lemmas (8) 8.5-10.5 (12) mm long, with 7 to 9 prominent nerves, tips bidentate, awned, the awns arising below the tips, as long or longer than the lemma bodies, twisted and spreading or slightly abruptly bent, the calluses stiff-hairy; anthers 1.4-2.0 mm long.
Moist to mesic open forests, forest margins and rocky slopes in the montane zone; infrequent in SC, SE and C BC, rare northward; circumpolar, N to SE AK, YT, NT, E to NF and S to ME, MA, PA, VA, KY, IL, IA, NE, NM and UT; W and C 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)
