General: Perennial, densely tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems (25) 45-110 cm tall, with visible nodes.
Leaves: Sheaths not conspicuous at the base of the stems, remaining entire, not shredding into fibres; blades (5) 10-20 (40) cm long, 0.4-0.7 mm wide, tightly folded, hairlike; ligules 0.1-0.4 (0.5) mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a loose, often drooping, panicle, 5-20 cm long, the branches (1) 2-10 cm long; spikelets 2- to 5- (7-) flowered, 6-12 mm long; lower glumes 2-5 mm long, the upper ones 3-6 mm long; lemmas 4-7 (8) mm long; awned, the awns 3-12 mm long; anthers (1) 1.7-3 mm long; ovary tops hairy.
Mesic to dry meadows, rocky slopes, clearings and open forests in the lowland and montane zones; frequent in BC south of 56 degrees N, infrequent northward to 57 degrees N; E to SW AB, disjunct to ON and S to MI, WI, WY, UT and CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to montane, North American grass distributed in the Pacific, Cordilleran, and Central regions. Occurs on nitrogen-poor soils within boreal, cool temperate, and cool mesothermal climates. Its occurrence increases with increasing continentality, and decreases with increasing elevation and latitude. Scattered in coniferous forests on shallow and/or strongly drained soils on stony and rocky sites. An oxylophytic species characteristic of Mor humus forms.
