Perennials, densely tufted; shoots intravaginal. Culms erect or obliquely ascending, (5–)10–30(–45) cm tall, usually several per tuft, smooth, nodes often 2, 1 exserted. Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, 2 or more × as long as blade, basal ones persistent, investing culm bases, uppermost closed for 1/4 length; ligule white, 2–4(–5) mm, abaxially smooth, of tillers 1–2 cm long; blade grayish green, flat or folded, thickly papery, withering, 3–10(–16) cm, 2–6 mm wide, surfaces glabrous, margins smooth or sparsely scabrid, apex prow-tipped. Panicle loosely contracted to open, ovoid to oblong (pyramidal at anthesis), 2–7 × 2–3 cm, purple tinged; branches ascending to spreading, 2 per node, rounded, smooth or distally sparsely scabrid, longest 2(–3) cm, divaricately rebranched with moderately crowded spikelets in distal 1/2. Spikelets broadly ovate, 4–8 mm, florets 3–5(–7); vivipary absent in China; rachilla internodes ca. 0.5 mm, smooth, glabrous (rarely slightly pilulose); glumes broadly ovate, membranous-papery, subequal, faintly 3-veined, keel arched, scabrid, surfaces smooth, margins membranous, smooth, apex acute, lower glume 2.5–3(–4) mm, upper glume 3.4–4.5 mm; lemmas broadly ovate, membranous-papery, apex and margins broadly membranous, keel arched, keel villous for 2/3 of length, marginal veins for 1/2 length, intermediate veins indistinct, area between veins pilulose to short villous; callus glabrous; palea glabrous or proximally infrequently pilulose between keels, keels scabrid, often medially pilulose to shortly villous. Anthers 1.2–2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep. 2n = 22, 28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42, 44, 58.
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Culms 1–4 dm, scarcely tufted, without rhizomes; lvs mostly on short basal shoots, 3–5 cm × 1.5–4 mm; cauline lvs 1 or 2, erect, 1–5 cm × 2–3 mm; ligule (1–)2–4 mm; panicle long-pedunculate, pyramidal, 3–6 cm, nearly as wide, its branches mostly paired, soon divaricately spreading; spikelets 4.5–6(–7) mm, (3)4–6-fld; glumes ovate, over half as wide as long, herbaceous-margined, the first 2.4–3.9 mm, the second 2.6–4.5 mm; lemmas 2.9–4.5 mm, spreading-hairy on the lower half of the keel and marginal veins, and to some extent in the interveinal areas below, not webbed, the intermediate veins obscure; anthers 1.5–2.2 mm; 2n=14–74. Calcareous shores and ledges; circumboreal, s. to N.S., Que., the Bruce Peninsula of Ont., and Keweenaw Point, Mich. (P. ×gaspensis)
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