Culms slender, to 1 m, from creeping rhizomes; sheaths glabrous except at the densely hairy collar; ligules 2-5 mm; blades 4-7 mm wide, scabrous and glaucous above, darker green and less scabrous or smooth beneath; infl 1-2 dm, some of the loosely ascending, fascicled branches spikelet-bearing to the base; glumes long-acuminate, scabrous on the keel, otherwise subglabrous, the outer 4-6 mm; lemma 3.5-4.5 mm; callus-hairs in 2 tufts, half as long as the palea, which is nearly as long as the lemma; awn inserted 1 mm above the base, geniculate near the middle, twisted below, equaling the lemma; rachilla to 1 mm, long-bearded; 2n=84-104. Dry rocky ridge-top forests s. of the glacial boundary in the Appalachian Mts.; s.c. N.Y. to Va., W.Va., Ky., and Tenn.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.