Culms few, erect, mostly 7–15 dm, glabrous to puberulent, often with a light-colored or mottled band of glandular tissue below each node; sheaths shorter than the internodes, glabrous or hispid, often mottled or white-spotted; ligule a minute membrane, usually with a band of short hairs just above it; blades elongate, mostly 10–25 cm × 6–15 mm, rather stiff, long-tapering from near the base to an involute tip, scabrous on the margins, glabrous on both sides or the lower puberulent beneath, at base glabrous or sparsely papillose-ciliate; primary panicle ovoid, with spreading or ascending branches, 8–15(–20) cm, half as wide, or wider; spikelets glabrous or minutely villosulous, ellipsoid to ovoid or lance-ovoid, pointed, 2.2–3.4 mm; first glume short and blunt, mostly less than one-third as long; second glume and sterile lemma pointed and surpassing the fr; autumnal phase loosely branched from the middle and upper nodes, the branches eventually forming dense tufts with much reduced blades and small panicles partly or wholly included in the sheaths; 2n=18. Wet, often sandy soil on the coastal plain; Conn. and N.J. to Fla. and Tex. (P. aculeatum; P. cryptanthum; Dichanthelium s.)
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