Culms in small dense tufts, wiry, 10-20 cm. high, erect to spreading, often geniculate at the densely pubescent nodes, glabrous, or pubescent below the nodes, the lower internodes somewhat elongate, the upper ones much shorter, completely hidden by the overlapping sheaths; sheaths keeled, pubescent toward the summit and on the margins, nearly glabrous on the back, often auriculate, the auricle fused with the ligule, the lower ones bladeless or with very much reduced blades; ligule 1-3 mm. long, membranaceous, obtuse, puberulent on the back or nearly glabrous; blades 3-5 on each culm, crowded toward the summit, 3-5 cm. long, 8-13 mm. wide, oblong-lanceolate, rather abruptly narrowed to an acute or acuminate tip, broad and rounded at the base, with a densely pubescent petiole about 1 mm. long, minutely pubescent on both surfaces or sometimes only ob-scurely puberulent; inflorescences terminal and axillary, partly enclosed in the sheaths, 2-3 cm. long, bearing 1-6 pistillate spikelets, the branches closely ap-pressed, usually pubescent; staminate spikelets 2.5 mm. long, the lemma subacute, the palea as long as or slightly longer than the lemma; anthers 1 mm. long; pistillate spikelet 7-8.5 mm. long, the pedicel 4-10 mm. long, relatively stout, much enlarged toward the summit; second glume and sterile lemma 3-nerved, with a few fine transverse nerves, glabrous or obscurely scaberulous, the second glume acute, the sterile lemma acute or subacuminate, slightly exceeding the second glume; fruit 6.5-7 mm. long, 2 mm. broad, subcylindrical, broadest above the middle, gradually narrowed to a blunt tip, smooth, shining, gray-greenish, at maturity mottled with darker drab; caryopsis 4.5 mm. long, light brown.
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