General:
Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots, sometimes flowering as a winter annual; stems 20-80 (100) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, smooth or minutely rough to hairy; blades flat, (2) 3-5 (6) mm wide, rough to hairy; ligules usually slightly minutely rough externally, irregularly jagged and more or less toothed, (1) 1.5-2 (2.5) mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a dense, spikelike to somewhat more open and interrupted panicle, (2) 5-15 cm long, the branches erect; spikelets 2-flowered; rachillas prolonged, with rudiments; glumes rough, the lower ones very narrow, scarcely 2 mm long, the upper ones much flattened, slightly hood-shaped, averaging about 2 mm long, 3-4 times as wide, the upper glumes rounded at the tips; lemmas oblong, rough, 2-2.6 mm long, unawned (rarely awn-tipped); anthers about 0.5 mm long.

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

Flower Colour:
Green

Blooming Period:
Spring

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present over the Summer

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Aira obtusata Michx.
Sphenopholis intermedia var. pilosa Dore
Sphenopholis obtusata var. lobata (Trin.) Scribn.
Sphenopholis obtusata var. major (Torr.) K.S. Erdman
Sphenopholis obtusata var. obtusata
Sphenopholis obtusata var. pubescens (Scribn. & Merr.) Scribn.