General: Annual grass from fibrous roots; stems hollow, mostly 60-150 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths open; blades flat, (3) 4-10 mm wide; ear-shaped lobes at the leaf-bases fairly prominent; ligules short membranous.
Flowers: Inflorescence a terminal spike, 8-15 cm long, with spikelets 1 per node; spikelets unstalked, 2-flowered, the florets side by side, the rachilla prolonged between the two; glumes stiff, slender, awl-like, 1-nerved, shorter than the lemmas; lemmas curved, 5-nerved, strongly fringed with fine hairs on the keels and exposed margins, awns mostly 4-7 cm long.
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.
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)
Dry waste areas and roadsides in the steppe and montane zones; rare (and not usually persisting) in S BC in and E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; introduced from Eurasia.
