culms 1–2 ft. long, glabrous, 2- (rarely 1-) noded; leaves mostly basal; lowest sheaths very firm, rigid, persistent, fulvously tomentose below, glabrescent above, upper rather tight, sparsely hairy or glabrous; nodes villous; blades linear, tapering to a fine point or acute, 6–9 in. by 1 1/2–2 lin., uppermost much shorter, rigid, glabrous and smooth, or sparsely hairy, rarely hispidly villous; triplets of spikelets 1–1 1/4 in. long, 5–3 in racemes, rarely 2 or solitary; peduncles 1/2–1 1/2 in. long, flexuous, glabrous and smooth or hispid above; pedicels very short, stout or hardly any; lower glume lanceolate, acute or subulate-acuminate, 9–12 lin. long, firm, 3-nerved, with long white soft spreading hairs from closely crowded small tubercles along the nerves; upper glume lanceolate, long subulate-acuminate, 14–18 lin. long, scarious, 3-nerved, minutely tubercled and spreadingly hairy along the margin; lower floret ♂: valve similar to the upper glume, but slightly longer, 7-nerved, side-nerves close to the margins with a double row of bristle-bearing glands on each side; pale linear-oblong, 7–8 lin. long; keels narrowly winged below, minutely ciliolate above; anthers 3 1/2 lin.; hermaphrodite floret: valve lanceolate, 4 1/2 lin. long, bifid to 1/3 its length, glabrous, 7-nerved, lobes lanceolate, acuminate; callus pungent, 1 1/2 lin. long, villous; awn yellowish, 2–3 in. long, obscurely geniculate; pale linear-oblong, 5–6 lin. long, keels almost smooth; ovary obovoid, villous except at the base; styles pubescent; grain linear-oblong, 3–3 1/2 lin. long. null
