Culms 8-40 cm, erect or decumbent. Blades usually glabrous abaxially, sometimes puberulent. Spikes 3-10 cm, often partly included, usually with 2 spikelets per node. Spikelets with (1)2-3 fertile florets, lowest 1-2 florets sterile and glumelike. Glume awns 15-40(70) mm, entire; lemma awns 25-70 mm, usually exceeding those of the glumes; paleas often with the veins extending as 1-2 mm bristles.

Elymus elymoides subsp. californicus grows in mid-montane to arctic-alpine habitats in western North America, at elevations of 1500-4200 m. Plants transitional to subsp. elymoides -occur where the two are sympatric.