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Culms slender, tufted, erect, 5–12 dm; main lvs 2–5(–8) mm wide; ligule 1–3 mm; infl 1–2 dm, the numerous branches ascending, drooping at the tip, bearing spikelets mostly beyond the middle; spikelets green or purplish, ovate, 2.5–4 mm; 3–6-fld; glumes ovate to obovate, obtuse, thin, the first 0.5–1 mm, the second 0.8–1.3 mm; lemmas elliptic to obovate, with prominently raised veins, 1.4–2.1 mm, obtuse and ± scarious at the tip, palea narrowly obovate, 3–4 times as long as wide; anthers 2, 0.3–0.6 mm; 2n=20. Open swamps and marshes, often gregarious; Nf. and Lab. to B.C., s. to Fla. and Calif. A smaller, stricter form of the northern part of the range, the lemmas usually purplish and with distinctly scarious tip, has been segregated as var. stricta (Scribn.) Fernald.
A grass.
