Culms clustered, 2–5 dm, simple or branched at the base only, the nodes bearded with soft, spreading hairs; sheaths pilose with spreading or more often retrorse hairs to 4 mm; ligule an entire or minutely fringed rim less than 0.5 mm, or obsolete; basal lvs numerous, relatively long and soft, similar to and only slightly if at all shorter than the soft, yellowish-green lower cauline lvs; blades 8–15 cm × 5–10 mm, sparsely pilose to glabrous on both sides, finely ciliate to glabrous on the margins, the uppermost one generally at least three-fourths as long as the basal ones; primary panicle 6–10 cm, its branches spreading, sparsely pilose to glabrous; spikelets soft-hairy, oblong-obovoid, 1.7–2.3 mm, obtuse; first glume broadly deltoid, a fourth to a third as long; second glume and sterile lemma soon separated and surpassed by the white or pale stramineous fr; autumnal phase basally branched, the blades scarcely reduced, much exceeding the small infls; 2n=18. Woods; Md. to s. Ind. and s. Mo., s. to Fla. and Tex. (P. xalapense; Dichanthelium l.)
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