Habit: 		Tufted perennial.
Culms: 		30-50 cm. tall, densely tufted, spreading, branched at the base 
                and often above.
Blades: 	Involute, scabrous above, 10 cm. long or less, 1-1.5 mm. wide.
Sheaths: 	Mostly longer than the internodes, lower often very rough, villous 
                at the throat.
Ligule: 	Pilose.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle nodding, narrow, loose, purplish, 10-20 cm. long, branches 
                capillary, flexuous,
		naked at the base, bearing rather few slender-pediceled spikelets.
Spikelets: 	About 15 mm. long, 1-flowered, narrow.
Glumes: 	1-nerved, acuminate, bearing an awn 1-2 mm., this often between 
                two slender irregular teeth, the first 6-8 mm. long, scabrous on the keel, 
                the second about twice as long, glabrous.
Lemmas: 	9-10 cm., the pubescent callus less than 1 mm. long, the body 
                tapering to a scarcely beaked summit, tuberculate-scabrous in lines 
                from below the middle to the summit, triple awned, awns 3-5 cm. long, 
                nearly equal, very slender, finally widely spreading.
Palea: 		Thin, included by the lemma.
Habitat: 	Dry hills and plains.  May-August.