perennial; culms erect, robust, up to 2 lin. thick, 3–5 ft. long, glabrous, simple or more or less branched and 3–5-noded below the panicle, longest internode over 1/2 ft. long; sheaths tight, glabrous or hairy, the lowest crowded, compressed, subpersistent, the upper terete, shorter than the internodes; ligules oblong, up to 3 1/2 lin. long; blades linear from a narrow, stoutly ribbed base, tapering to a long fine point, up to 1 1/2 ft. by 1–2 1/2 lin. glabrous or scantily hairy, glaucous; panicle lax, narrow, up to 1 1/2 ft. long; racemes 3/4–1 1/2 lin. long, very villous, on slender shortly and laterally exserted peduncles, having numerous long tubercle-based hairs near the curvature; spathes, joints, pedicels and spikelets as in A. hirtus, except for the pedicelled spikelets having a muticous lower glume and subequal valves. null
