UW Burke Herbarium species comparison

Sheaths open, usually glabrous;

auricles well-developed;

ligules 0.5-1.5 mm. long, with fine marginal hairs;

blades flat, coarse, usually scabrous, 7-15 mm. broad, often glaucous.

Inflorescence a single terminal spike 10-20 cm. long, often drooping, the upper spikelets crowded, the lower barely overlapping;

spikelets articulate above the glumes, 2- to 6-flowered, borne flatwise on the rachis, 2 per node;

glumes scabrous, hardened, the base spreading, the awn slender and divergent;

lemmas scabrid-pubescent, the body 10-15 mm. long, tapered gradually into a divergent, scabrid awn up to 3.5 cm. long;

paleas nearly as long as the body of the lemmas.