General:
Perennial, strongly tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems solid, more or less strongly grooved, mostly 30-70 (100) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open, smooth except along the margins and especially at the throats where strongly fringed with fine woolly hairs; blades usually in-rolled, 2-4 (5) mm wide, mostly smooth but very strongly soft-hairy along the margins bordering the ligules, the collars with numerous, long, usually divergent hairs (1) 2-3 mm long; ligules 0.5-0.7 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a moderately open, spikelike panicle, (9) 10-20 (30) cm long, generally partially included in the sheaths, the branches simple to again branched, usually stiffly ascending, bearing spikelets to near the base; spikelets 1-flowered; glumes sharp-pointed, unequal, the lower ones about 1 mm long, the upper ones about twice as long; lemmas sharp-pointed, 2-3 mm long, paleas nearly equal to the lemmas; lodicules fan-shaped, about 0.2 mm long; anthers 0.5-1 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:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Late Summer

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Summer to Fall

Source:  The USDA

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Agrostis cryptandra Torr.
Sporobolus cryptandrus subsp. fuscicola (Hook.) E.K. Jones & Fassett
Sporobolus cryptandrus subsp. typicus
Sporobolus cryptandrus var. fuscicola (Hook.) Pohl
Sporobolus cryptandrus var. occidentalis E.K. Jones & Fassett
Sporobolus cryptandrus var. strictus Scribn.