Vigorously rhizomatous, 5–10 dm, the culms at first simple and erect, later bushy-branched and sprawling; internodes smooth and shining; blades and sheaths glabrous; blades lax, the larger ones 4–12 cm × 2–7 mm; ligule membranous, lacerate-ciliate, 0.8–1.5 mm; panicles terminal and axillary, the latter borne at many nodes and only partly exserted, all narrow, to 10 × 1 cm, the branches erect except during anthesis; terminal peduncle sometimes exsert to 5 cm; glumes 2–4(–5) mm, subequal, narrowly lanceolate to linear, tapering from the base to an acuminate or short-awned tip, usually surpassing the lemma or occasionally a fourth shorter; lemma 2.9–3.6 mm, glabrous except the slightly bearded callus, awnless or with an awn to 11 mm; anthers 0.3–0.6 mm; 2n=40. Forest-margins, thickets, alluvial plains, and moist prairies, sometimes a weed in fields and gardens; N.B. to N.D., s. to Ga. and Tex. (M. mexicana, misapplied; M. commutata, the awned form)
Home