sphalmate mollis in Key; perennial, tufted, 2–3 ft. high; culms 3–4-noded, softly hairy, at least below the panicle, rarely quite glabrous; leaf-sheaths reversedly and softly hairy, rarely glabrous, villous at the nodes, the uppermost inflated; ligule membranous, oblong, pubescent, 1 lin. long; blades linear to linear-lanceolate, up to 6 in. by 2–3 1/2 lin., the uppermost very short, flat, softly hairy; panicle erect, oblong, 2–6 in. long, usually contracted; rhachis, branches, branchlets and pedicels hairy; spikelets oblong, 2 1/4–2 1/2 lin. long, whitish or purplish; glumes almost equally long, mucronate, scabrid, keels pectinate-ciliate, the lower narrower, the upper broader with prominent side-nerves; lower floret hermaphrodite, upper ♂: lower valve obliquely lanceolate-oblong, rather more than 1 lin. long, with a few hairs on the keel, very obscurely 5-nerved; callus with a few long hairs; upper valve smaller and thinner, awn shorter than the valve, at length recurved, rather stout; pales as long as their valves; anthers 3/4–1 lin. long. null
