perennial; rhizome creeping; covered with the persistent imbricate sheath-bases; barren shoots short, stout; culms erect, very slender, 1/2–1 ft. long, 1–3-noded, glabrous, smooth, uppermost internode long exserted; sheaths of the barren shoots and the culm-bases closely imbricate, short, broad, firm, glabrous, smooth, of the culm-leaves tight, narrow, obscurely striate; ligule a line of short hairs; blades lanceolate, subobtuse, the lower 3–6 lin. by 3/4–1 lin., the uppermost rudimentary, flat, rigid, often curled, glabrous, smooth, or minutely puberulous below; margins cartilaginous, smooth; panicle erect, ovate, lax, 1–3 in. by 3/4–1 1/2 in.; branches 5–2-nate or solitary, oblique-erect, subcapillary, smooth, branched from the middle, or simple; branchlets 2–4-spiculate; lateral pedicels very short; spikelets close, secund, dark olive-green, 3/4 lin. long; glumes very unequal, obtuse, the lower ovate, 1/4 lin. long, hyaline, nerveless, the upper oblong, 1-nerved; valve like the upper glume, but slightly shorter; pale slightly shorter than the valve; stamens 3; anthers 1/2 lin. long. null
