Habit: 		Tufted perennial.
Culms: 		Erect, commonly in dense tufts, mostly 40-80 cm. tall, simple, rarely branching.
Blades: 	10-25 cm. long, 1-3 mm. wide, flat to subinvolute, pilose on the upper surface near the
		base, otherwise glabrous or with a few scattered hairs.
Sheaths: 	Mostly longer than the internodes, especially below, glabrous, or the lowermost
		sparsely pilose, conspicuously pilose at the throat, the long spreading hairs extending
		part or all the way across the collars, more or less ciliate or papillose-ciliate,
		or the lower sparsely papillose-hirsute.
Ligule: 	A ring of very short hairs, often hidden by the long hairs back of the throat.
Inflorescence: 	Panicles finally exserted, erect, open, often diffuse, 15-35 cm. long,
		pilose in the main axils as well as those of the branchlets, especially the lower, the
		branches slender but rather stiff, spreading or horizontal; spikelets on scabrous
		divergent pedicels, 1-3 times as long; the panicle becoming a tumbleweed.
Spikelets: 	2-9-flowered, 3-10 mm. long, at maturity about 1-5 mm. wide, grayish or
		brownish-green, dark with age.
Glumes: 	Scabrous on the keel, narrow, acute, equal or the first about 1-1.2 mm. long,
		the second 1.2-1.5 mm. long, broader.
Lemmas: 	About 1.8-2.5 mm. long, usually bronze tipped, not hyaline, margined,
		the 3 nerves obscure, sparsely minutely scabrous.
Palea: 		Persistent, nearly as long as its lemma, curved, obtuse, scabrous on the keels.
Fruit: 		Grain about 0.7 mm. long, dark amber, striate.
Habitat: 	Dry, rocky, gravely or sandy prairies.  Spring to fall.