Stiff, dense, bright green or greyish green perennial tufts, 15-30-(40) cm, from shortly creeping rhizome, sometimes forming large swards; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath coriaceous, strongly ribbed, glabrous, shining, pale greyish brown or creamy. Ligule 0.5-1.4 mm, truncate, entire, abaxially with sparse prickle-teeth. Leaf-blade 6-18 cm ×c. 0.5 mm diam., tightly involute, hard, pungent, spreading at right angles to sheath at maturity, abaxially smooth, or with minute prickle-teeth or hairs beside ribs, adaxially minutely papillose on ribs. Culm 10-32 cm, slender, erect, internodes glabrous, or minutely hairy or prickle-toothed. Spike 4.5-7.5 cm, secund, very slender; rachis concave-convex, smooth but margins finely scabrid, produced as a fine scabrid bristle 2-9 mm. Spikelets 6-10.5 mm, 1-flowered, in 2 rows along concave side of rachis, loosely to closely overlapping, sessile in notches on rachis, green or usually purplish. Glumes persistent, much reduced; lower a ± triangular, sometimes short-ciliate wedge, projecting upwards from rim of rachis-notch, c. 0.3-0.6 mm, upper usually 0. Lemma = spikelet, 3-nerved with central nerve inconspicuous and lateral nerves prominent, subcoriaceous with wide membranous margins, narrow-lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, smooth to minutely scabrid above with some longer prickle-teeth on lateral nerves; awn 1.6-3 mm, terminal, straight. Palea slightly < lemma, membranous, apex rounded and very short-ciliate, keels 2. Callus ringed by minute hairs. Lodicules 0. Stamens 3; anthers 3.5-4 mm and fertile, or mostly 1-2 mm and pollenless. Gynoecium: ovary c. 1 mm, glabrous; stigma-style 5-6 mm. Caryopsis c. 3 × 0.5 mm, fusiform; embryo c. ⅙ caryopsis; hilum c. ⅓ caryopsis. Fig. 4.
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Culms 10–40 (–60) cm high. Spike linear, 30–80 mm long. Spikelets 5–9 mm long. Lower glume persistent, 0.1–0.3 mm long. Lemma 5–7 mm long, acute, scaberulous; awn 1–3 mm long. Palea linear to lorate, 4–6 mm long, glabrous between keels. Anthers 3.5–4 mm long. Caryopsis 3–4 mm long.
Culms rough, 1–4 dm; spikes 3–8 cm; lemmas 8–12 mm, of which the terminal awn constitutes a third; 2n=16. Native of Europe, intr. here and there from Nf. and N.S. to Mich.
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