Distribution: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to the Great Plains.

Habitat: Grasslands, desert plains, and foothills, especially on rocky or sandy soil.

Flowers: May-June

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Wind

Strongly tufted perennial 3-6 dm. tall, the culms thick-walled, but hollow.

Sheaths open, glabrous to puberulent; ligules about 6 mm. long, entire to lacerate, acuminate; blades elongate, strongly involute, about 1 mm. wide.

Inflorescence an open panicle 8-16 cm. long, the branches spreading and dichotomously branched, the pedicles filiform; spikelets 1-flowered, articulate above the glumes; glumes ovate-acuminate, 3-nerved, subglabrous, 5-9 mm. long, subequal; lemmas dark, 3-4 mm. long, copiously hairy, with a stout awn 4-6 mm. long; stamens 3, the anthers with a tuft of hair at the tip; lodicules 3, 2 mm. long, two broadly wedge-shaped, the third rhombic.

Utricle