Culms slender, tufted, 4-8 dm, without rhizomes; lvs lax, 1-2 mm wide, often divergent, often some of them above the middle of the shoot, the upper scarcely shorter than the lower; ligule truncate, 0.5 mm; infl narrowly ovoid, 1-2 dm, eventually loose and open, the slender branches in sets of ca 5, bearing spikelets in the distal half; spikelets 2-4-fld; glumes narrowly lanceolate, long-acuminate, the first 2.2-3 mm, conspicuously narrower than but nearly equaling the first lemma, the second 2.3-3.3 mm; lemmas apparently 3-veined (the intermediate veins obscure), 2.1-3.1 mm, webbed at base, the straight keel and marginal veins sericeous or villosulous below; glabrous or scabrous in the distal third; rachilla evidently puberulent at 30 anthers 1.2-1.6 mm; 2n=28-70. Native of Europe, intr. across the continent in s. Can., and occasionally found in moist meadows and along roadsides throughout most of our range.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
