Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennials; culms in dense tufts, 10–30 cm tall.

Stems: Culms slender, erect or spreading.

Roots: Roots fibrous.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, primarily toward base of culms. Blades 5-15 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, usually involute. Apex attenuate to a slender point. Upper surfaces scabrous; lower surfaces glabrous. Veins parallel. Sheaths glabrous, pilose at throat; ligule a fringe of hairs ca. 0.2 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescences paniculate, erect, narrow and spike-like, often somewhat interrupted, 5-15 cm long, usually less than 1 cm wide, the branches short and appressed, the lower ones 1-2 cm long; spikelets usually 6-8-flowered, ca. 5 mm long, rachilla glabrous; glumes 2-3 mm long, apex acuminate, first glume often longer than first lemma. Lemmas imbricate, scarcely exposing rachilla, ca. 2 mm long, glabrous, apex obtuse; palea nearly as long as glumes, keel scabrous.

Fruit: Caryopsis reddish brown; ovoid to oblong; 0.7-1 mm long; surface punctate-striate.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Occurring in open mesic shrubland; pastures; or grasslands; often on ridges or exposed slopes.

Elevation Range: 360–1,070 m.