Habit:		Tufted perennial, with strong, short, scaly rhizomes.
Culms:		50-100 cm. tall, erect, tufted, smooth and glabrous.
Blades:		Numerous, 5-15 (25) cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, flat or involute and setaceous toward the end,
		scabrous above and on the margins, sometimes more or less hairy and sparingly papillose on the margins,
		especially near the base.
Sheaths:	Usually shorter than the internodes, loose, striate, glabrous or the lower densely papillose-hairy,
		the throat often pilose and papillose-hispid.
Ligule:		Ciliate-fringed, very short.
Inflorescence:	Panicle racemose, 7-40 cm. long, 1-sided, with an angled or flattened axis, of many (20-60)
		spikes, 6-15 mm. long, on short, flattened, puberulent peduncles, approximate or distant, spreading or
		pendulous and mostly twisted to one side, the spikes falling entire.
Spikelets:	4-12, divergent, 6-10 mm. long, 1 perfect flower.
Glumes:		Scabrous especially on the keels, first narrow, acute, 4-5 mm. long, the upper broader, about 7 mm. long,
		of two very delicate awns, or almost a full-formed lemma with rather long awns.
Lemmas:		Of fertile floret 5-6 mm. long, oblong, smooth or slightly scabrous toward the apex, the 3 nerves
		extended into 3 short awns.
Palea:		About the length of the lemma, acuminate, bidentate, the 2 keels scabrous.
Rudiment:	Reduced to a minute scale with a delicate scabrous awn, and a rudimentary palea consisting of
		two very delicate awns, or almost a full-formed lemma with rather long awns.
Habitat:	Plains, prairies and rocky hills.  July-September.
Use:		An important native grass of the prairie.
Synonyms:	Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr. var. caespitosa Gould & Kapadia
		Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr. var. curtipendula