Habit: 		Glaucous, strongly rhizomatous perennial.
Culms: 		30-100 cm. tall, erect.
Blades: 	5-30 cm. long; 1-5 mm. wide; rigid; bluish green; glaucous; 
                strongly grooved above; smooth beneath or slightly scabrous; 
                becoming involute; auriculate.
Sheaths:	Shorter than the internodes, glabrous, glaucous.
Ligule: 	0.2-0.8 mm long; membranous ring, somewhat ciliate.
Inflorescence: 	Terminal, erect, bilateral; 5-18 cm. long.
Spikelets: 	8-16 mm long; 4-10-flowered, usually overlapping.
Glumes: 	5-13 mm. long, acuminate one half or two thirds as long as spikelet, 
                faintly nerved, equal, opposite or placed edge to edge on the outer 
                side of the spikelet, usually subcoriaceous and rigid, scabrous on 
                the keel; first slightly shorter than the second.
Lemmas: 	8-15 mm. long, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, seldom awn-pointed, 
                smooth or nearly so; broader, rigid, rounded on the back, or slightly 
                keeled above, faintly 5-7-nerved.
Palea: 		Shorter than the lemma, scabrous-pubescent on the 2 keels.
Caryopsis:	Enclosed in the lemma, adherent to the palea.
Synonyms:	Pascopyrum smithii (Rydb.) A. Love
		Agropyron molle (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Rydb.
		Agropyron smithii Rydb. var. molle (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) M.E. Jones
		Agropyron smithii Rydb. var. palmeri (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Heller