Tufted perennial 5–12 dm; lvs mostly 6–10 per stem, flat, 4–10 mm wide, scabrous on both sides; auricles to 1 mm, or wanting; spikes rigidly erect, 4–12(–16) cm, the base often included in the summit of the ± inflated uppermost sheath; spikelets mostly paired, 2–4(–5)-fld, disarticulating below the glumes; glumes subequal, 10–30 mm overall, firm, 0.8–2 mm wide, with a yellowish, cartilaginous, bowed-out base 1+ mm exposing the subtended florets, expanded above the base and tapering to the tip, flat and with 2–3 ciliolate veins abaxially, but swollen and uninerved for at least the basal half adaxially, usually ± long-awned, to 4 cm overall; lemmas small, 6–9 mm, glabrous to crisp-puberulent, scabrous and becoming 5-veined above the middle, usually with a long straight awn to 3.5 cm, but sometimes virtually awnless; larger paleas 6.5–8.5 mm, obtuse to truncate or slightly emarginate; anthers 1.5–3 mm; 2n=28. Moist woods, meadows, and prairies; Nf. to Alta., s. to Fla. and Ariz. Highly variable, and often divided into a number of ± sympatric, intergrading vars. or forms. A hybrid with Hordeum jubatum has been called ×Elyhordeum montanense (Scribn.) Bowden.
Home