General: Annual, loosely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems sometimes solitary, erect (sometimes bent or angled at the lower nodes), (3) 6-30 (60) cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths smooth or the lower ones usually short-hairy with the hairs directed downward; blades flat or rolled, smooth or short-hairy, to 1 mm wide; ligules 0.2-0.7 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a narrowly erect panicle (sometimes reduced to a raceme), (1) 2-7 (20) cm long; spikelets 4-10 mm long (excluding the awns), 5- to 11- (17-) flowered, the florets closely overlapping; glumes smooth or short-hairy, the lower glumes 1- to 3-nerved, (1.7) 2-4.5 mm long, the upper glumes 3-nerved, (2.7) 3.5-5.5 (6.7) mm long; lemmas smooth or short-hairy, lanceolate, 2.7-5 (6.5) mm long, the terminal awns (0.3) 1.5-4.5 (9) mm long; rachilla internodes usually 0.5-0.7 mm long; anthers 1 (rarely 2 or 3), (0.3) 1-3.3 mm long.
Notes: Three poorly separated varieties are sometimes recognized on the basis of floret size and hairiness. All of these phases can be found in BC.
Mesic to dry slopes and plains, open forests, roadsides and disturbed areas in the lowland and montane zones; frequent in SC and SE BC; E to PQ and NB and S to ME, MA, PA, NC, FL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, CA and MX.
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)
