Stout, erect, tufted perennial 4–10 dm; sheaths longer than the internodes, ciliate-margined and sometimes villous on the back; blades 4–10 mm wide, elongate and tapering to a fine point, involute when dry; infl diffuse, half the length of the entire shoot, its scabrous branches pilose in the axils; pedicels spreading, 8–18 mm; spikelets 2–4 mm, 2–6-fld; first glume 1.4–2 mm, the second 1.6–2.2 mm; lemmas 1.7–2.4 mm, rounded on the back, the lateral veins inconspicuous or nearly obsolete, at maturity falling individually from the intact rachilla, on which the paleas may persist; grain 0.7–1 mm, barrel-shaped; 2n=100. Dry sandy soil near the coast; Md. and Va. to Fla. and Tex., n. in the interior to Mo., and rarely intr. northward, as in Mass. and Me.
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