perennial; culms erect, branched 3–8 ft. high, glabrous, very smooth, rarely more or less hairy near the nodes, many-noded, sheathed all along or the upper internodes shortly exserted; sheaths tight, firm, striate, keeled in the upper part, glabrous except at the ciliate upper margins, or hairy; ligules very short, truncate, broader than the short hairy petioles; blades lanceolate-oblong or ovate-oblong, asymmetric, particularly at the rounded base, conspicuously acuminate, 4–7 in. by 1–2 3/4 in., flat, glaucous, glabrous except quite at the base, rarely sparingly hairy, slightly rough with about 11–19 primary nerves and a prominent whitish midrib; panicle erect, terminal or with a lateral one from the uppermost leaf axil, 3–6 in. long, rather contracted or subpyramidal; axis slender, angular, pubescent; branches solitary or sometimes fascicled, subflexuous or straight, angular, pubescent; pedicels adpressed, of the ♂ spikelets filiform, of the ♀ clavate; ♂ spikelets lateral, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, awned from the valve, glabrous; glumes quite rudimentary forming an inconspicuous slightly 2-lobed puberulous rim at the tip of the pedicels; valve herbaceous-membranous, gradually passing into an awn of about equal length, 1 3/4–2 lin. long, 3-nerved; lodicules 3, cuneate, thin; anthers over 1 lin. long; ♀ spikelets solitary and terminal on the tips of the branches, or 2–3, rarely more, below the terminal spikelet, oblong-ovoid, turgid, awned from the lower glume; glumes ovate, elliptic, membranous, strongly nerved and veined, lower acuminate or shortly caudate-acuminate, about 4 lin. long, 5–7-nerved, upper produced into a flexuous scabrid awn of equal or greater length, 7–9-nerved; valve ovate-elliptic, obtuse, 2–3 lin. long, white or greyish, cartilaginous, very hard, shining; styles connate beyond the middle; grain oblong. null
