perennial, compactly cæspitose; culms firm, erect, slender or somewhat stout, 1–2 ft. long, glabrous, smooth, usually very viscous below the nodes, 3–5-noded, internodes exserted; sheaths tight, striate, glabrous except at the bearded mouth, more or less viscous, lowest persistent; ligule a dense fringe of minute hairs; blades narrow, linear, tapering to a setaceous point, usually filiform-convolute, 4–10 in. long, 1–2 lin. wide at the base when expanded, rigid, glabrous, smooth on the back, densely scabrid along the projecting nerves on the upper side; panicle linear or narrow-oblong, erect, 6–10 in. long; rhachis angular, smooth; branches solitary, or irregularly approximate and subverticillate, erect or obliquely erect, short or the lower up to 3 in. long, angular, smooth, divided from the base; branchlets mostly very short, subsecund, with the spikelets in dense clusters; pedicels very short; spikelets oblong, obtuse, up to 2 lin. long, purplish or light brown, rigid, loosely 5–9-flowered; rhachilla disarticulating; glumes subequal, oblong-lanceolate, acute, about 1/2 lin. long, strongly keeled, keel scaberulous; valves oblong in profile, obtuse, 2/3 lin. long, rigidly membranous, side-nerves very prominent, keel scaberulous above; pales subequal to the valves, and falling with them, keels scabrid above; stamens 3; anthers 2/5 lin. long; grain oblong-ellipsoid, 1/5– 1/4 lin. long, brown, smooth. null
