Description:
This native perennial grass is 2-3' tall and tufted at the base. The culms are
tan or reddish brown, hairless, and terete; the base of each culm is erect,
rather than decumbent across the ground. Alternate leaves are produced
primarily along the lower half of each culm. The leaf blades are up to 10" long
and ¼" across, light green or light blue, hairless or slightly
pubescent, and curling outward. The leaf sheaths are light green or light blue,
hairless or slightly pubescent, and finely ribbed. Each culm terminates in
several ascending racemes of spikelets. Each raceme is about 1½–3"
long and it has a peduncle (or flowering stalk) of variable length underneath.
Several pairs of spikelets occur on opposite sides of the raceme's rachis
(central stem); this rachis is covered with long white hairs and it tends to
zigzag between the spikelets as they become mature. For each pair, there is a
fertile spikelet that is sessile and a sterile spikelet on a slender pedicel.
The fertile spikelet is about ¼" (6 mm.) in length (excluding any awns);
it consists of a pair of outer glumes and a pair of inner lemmas. The narrow
glumes are light green to tan and hairless or slightly hairy. The fertile lemma
is tan to reddish brown and it has a slender white awn about 1/3" (10 mm.) at
its apex; this awn can be straight to strongly curved. The sterile spikelet is
about one-half the length of the fertile spikelet and it also has a slender
white awn. The florets have anthers that are brown or reddish brown and plumose
stigmas that are pale purple. The blooming period occurs from late summer into
the fall. Each fertile spikelet produces a single elongated grain. The root
system is fibrous and rhizomatous. Tight bunches of culms and leaves are
produced from the short rhizomes. The culms and leaves become various shades of
tan, brown, or wine-red during the fall and winter.