Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennials; culms tufted, erect, 3–4 dm tall.

Stems: Culms glabrous.

Roots: Roots fibrous.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades 10-15 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, usually involute. Apex attenuate to a fine point. Upper surfaces sparsely villous near base; lower surfaces glabrous. Veins parallel. Sheaths glabrous, slightly villous at throat; ligule membranous, margins ciliate, less than 0.5 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescences paniculate, oblong, open, ca. 30 cm long, 5-7 cm wide, the branches slender, stiffly ascending, up to l0 cm long, scabrous, axils villous, ultimate branches and pedicels stiffly ascending, usually longer than spikelets; spikelets brownish yellow, usually 8-10-flowered, 7-10 mm long; glumes subequal, 1-nerved, keel scabrous, acuminate, first glume ca. 2 mm long, slightly shorter and narrower than second glume, nearly as long as lowest lemma, awn-tipped. Lemmas imbricate and concealing rachis, 2-2.5 mm long, faintly 3-nerved, keel obscurely scabrous near apex, otherwise glabrous, rounded on the back or keeled toward apex; palea slightly shorter than lemma, minutely ciliate.

Fruit: Caryopsis dark brown; oblong; ca. 1.2 mm long; finely alveolate.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Sand hills and ridges.

Elevation Range: