Culms loosely or densely tufted, 5–12 dm, often freely branched above; herbage often glaucous; blades 3–7 mm wide; rames long-exsert, bearing 5–20 sets of spikelets on a straight or flexuous, white-ciliate rachis; glumes 5–10 mm; awn 7–14 mm, twisted near the base; sterile pedicels usually in pairs, densely ciliate, often spreading, each bearing a vestigial spikelet 3–10 mm (awn included); 2n=40. Dry soil, old fields, prairies, and open woods; N.B. and Que. to Alta., s. to Fla. and Mex. Abundant and highly variable, an important constituent of tall-and mixed-grass prairies. (Andropogon s.; A. praematurus, a smutted form of this or of some sp. of Andropogon) Three vars. with us.
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