Perennial; culms relatively slender, tufted, commonly 1-1.5 m. high, occasion-ally only 0.5 m., erect, glabrous, usually tinged dull red or brownish; sheaths usually much shorter than the long internodes, compressed, keeled, glabrous; ligule membranaceous, 0.5 mm. long; blades elongate, especially those of the innovations, 2-5 mm. wide, conduplicate, becoming flat, the lower surface glabrous, the upper often more or less villous, the margins obscurely scabrous, sometimes ciliate near the base; inflorescence long and narrow, the slender, relatively short branches closely appressed, bearing numerous solitary racemes 1 cm. long, partly enclosed in small reddish or purplish spathes; spikelets green, 3 mm. long, awnless, the pedicellate as large as the sessile one; first glume scabrous on the keels.
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