Robust, tufted, sometimes shortly rhizomatous perennial 1–3 m, sometimes sod-forming, often glaucous; blades usually 5–10 mm wide, the lower ones and the sheaths sometimes villous; racemes (2)3–4(–6), 5–10 cm, subdigitate, on a long-exserted peduncle; joints of the rachis and pedicels equal, subterete, sparsely or usually densely ciliate, densely bearded at the top; spikelets appressed, 7–10 mm, the glumes minutely scaberulous, often ciliate; awn of the fertile lemma 8–20 mm, twisted below and ± bent; pedicellate spikelet staminate, about as large as the sessile one; 2n=20, 40, 60, 80–86. Moist or dry, open places, a major constituent of the tall-grass prairie; Que. to Sask., s. to Fla. and Ariz. (A. furcatus; A. provincialis)
Dry soils, prairies, open ground and open woods. Characteristic of climax grasslands throughout the tallgrass prairie region; it once blanketed the region, often comprising 70-90% of the vegetation
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It is a temperate plant. It suits hardiness zones 2-7.
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