Green or glaucous, 4-10 dm, in dense tufts sometimes 1.5 dm wide at base; lvs numerous, mostly cauline, flat to loosely involute, 2-4 mm wide, usually pilose above; auricles clasping the stem; spikes 7-18 cm, slender, the middle internodes 9-17 mm, the remote spikelets shorter to slightly longer than the internodes, 12-16+ mm, 4-6(-9)-fld; glumes narrowly oblong to obovate, rounded to acute, rarely awn-tipped, scabrous-margined, glabrous to scabrous on the 4-5 veins; lemmas 8-10 mm, with divergent awns 9-15 mm, varying to sometimes (but not in our plants) awnless; anthers 4-6 mm; 2n=14, 28. Open, moderately dry places; widespread in w. N. Amer., e. to Sask., N.D., and Nebr.; disjunct on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Mich. (Agropyron s.; Pseudoroegneria s.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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