Habit : A perennial densely tufted grass with stem erect or ascending, usually simple, nodes usually bearded.
Leaves : Linear, finely acuminate, glaucous, glabrous or more or less sparsely hairy above with small bulbous-based hairs, the margins scabrid; sheaths bearded at the tip; ligule oblong, obtuse, membranous, glabrous.
Inflorescence and Flowers :
Racemes subdigitately fascicled, pinkish or nearly white; peduncles glabrous, joints and pedicels half as long as the spikelets, sparingly ciliate.
Sessile spikelets variable in length, elliptic-oblong, closely imbricating; callus thick, shortly bearded at the base; lower involucral glume elliptic-oblong, obtuse, ciliolate at the rounded or truncate apex, thin, margins narrowly incurved, the keels ciliate, the back hairy or glabrous, 5-9 nerved, the nerves not reaching the tip; upper involucral glume equaling the lower but narrower, lanceolate, subacute, glabrous or ciliolate, 3-nerved; lower floral glume as long as the upper involucral glume, linear-oblong, obtuse, nerveless, glabrous; upper floral glume represented by the flattened white base of a scabrid slender awn.
Pedicellate spikelets about equaling the sessile, male or neuter; lower involucral glume elliptic-oblong, obtuse, 7-11 nerved, the keels bristly, upper involucral glume narrower, 3-nerved; lower floral glume ciliate, upper floral glume small or obsolete.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : Throughout the year.
Significance :
Often grows in hedges and on roadsides, but chiefly on old pasture grounds.
