perennial; culms erect from a short oblique rhizome, rather stout, up to 3 ft. high or more, usually sheathed all along, simple, few-noded, scabrid below the panicle, otherwise smooth; leaves mostly crowded at the base; sheaths long, rounded on the back, firm, persistent, striate, glabrous or somewhat rough or hispid; ligule a fringe of rather long hairs; blades linear, long tapering to a fine or setaceous point, up to 2 ft. by 2–3 lin., firm, usually convolute, glabrous, smooth beneath in the lower part, very rough above and along the margins, nerves strong, prominent above; panicle spike-like, cylindric, erect or nodding, 3–12 in. by 4–6 lin., dense, usually pallid; rhachis scaberulous; pedicels very short or obsolete; involucre of numerous pallid, very slender, scabrid bristles, shorter or slightly longer than the spikelet except one which is 4–7 lin. long and conspicuously stouter; spikelets solitary, lanceolate, acute to acuminate, 2–2 1/2 lin. long, pallid, glabrous; glumes very small or lower obsolete, hyaline, ovate to rounded, acute to truncate, nerveless or 1-nerved; florets about equal, lower reduced to the valve; valves similar, lanceolate, acute to subulate-acuminate, 5-nerved; lodicules truncate, fleshy, 1/6– 1/8 lin. long; anthers 1 1/2 lin. long, tips naked; styles free or almost so. null
