Ligules 0.3-0.8(1.1) mm. Inflorescence units usually with 2-5 rames; rames usually concealed at maturity.

Andropogon gyrans var. gyrans generally grows in dry, sandy soil of roadsides, embankments, fields, and pine or oak woods, occasionally in moister soil. Its range extends south from the United States to the Caribbean and Central America. Plants from Florida and Mississippi do not have inflated sheaths.

As now known, this species is restricted practically to the unglaciated area where it is usually found with Andropogon virginicus. It is most often found in dry, impoverished soil on washed slopes and in abandoned fields. A variety projectus has been named by Fernald & Griscom (Rhodora 37: 139. 1935). The Indiana record is based upon my collection no. 26865. This variety is described as having the racemes on long-exserted peduncles. This is merely the early phase of the inflorescence, and late in the season the long-exserted racemes usually fall and the broad sheaths open, exposing the subsessile pairs of racemes in their axils.