Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Cespitose perennials 50–125 cm tall.

Stems: Culms unbranched, puberulent, the nodes pubescent.

Roots: Roots fibrous.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, cauline. Blades 15-35 cm long, 0.1-1.9 cm wide, flat. Surfaces velvety puberulent or upper surface sometimes glabrous. Veins parallel. Sheaths velvety puberulent and papillose-hispid; ligule a ciliate membrane, 1.4-3.2 mm long, the membrane 0.4-1.2 mm long, the cilia 0.8-2.2 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Panicles 13-35 cm long, terminal, axis puberulent at least below, branches appressed to the rachis, scaberulous; spikelets 2.6-3.2 mm long, acuminate, glabrous; glumes as long as spikelet, first glume usually slightly shorter than second glume, sometimes subequal, 5-nerved, acuminate, second glume 5-7-nerved, acuminate. First floret sterile, first lemma as long as first glume or shorter, 7-9-nerved, first palea %-% as long as first lemma; second floret 1.2-1.5 mm long, 0.6-0.7 mm wide, 0.6-0.8 mm shorter than first lemma, elliptic, glossy, smooth; anthers 0.9-1.2 mm long.

Fruit: Fruit a caryopsis

Ploidy:

Habitat: Rare on sand dunes or rocky knolls.

Elevation Range: 10–15 m.