Habit: 		Densely tufted, erect perennial.
Culms: 		20-80 cm tall, not branched, often hairy at the nodes.
Blades: 	Thick, 2-8 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, erect, rolled to flat
                (culm leaves shorter), tapering, glabrous or sparsely pilose, 
                2-23 cm long and 1.5-3.5 mm wide.
Sheaths: 	Shorter than internodes, scabrous with lower sheaths pubescent.
Ligule:		Membranous, fringed lacerate, 0.4-1.0 mm long.
Inflorescence: 	Panicles 6-21 cm long, narrow, dense, with very short, appressed 
                branches, pale or purplish.
Spikelets: 	Crowded, 7-11 mm. long, compressed, 3 to 11-flowered, rachilla 
                disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets.
Glumes: 	Narrow, acute, the first 1-nerved, 3.2-8.4 mm long, and the second 
                5-nerved and 3.8-8.4 mm. long.
Lemmas: 	Broad, 4-6 mm. long, 3-nerved, pubescent on the nerves to near or 
                above the midpoint with long silky white hairs, blunt to emarginate at the apex.
Habitat: 	Prairies, pastures, and open woods. April-October.
Synonyms:	Tridens elongatus (Buckl.) Nash