Culms 3-10 dm, slender and weak, usually ±decumbent and creeping at base; lvs soft, 2-10 mm wide; ligules 2.5-9 mm; infl 5-15 cm, with relatively few branches, eventually diffuse; spikelets narrowly ovate, 4-7 mm, 4-6-fld; glumes broadly rounded at the scarious tip, the first 0.9-2.1 mm, the second 1.1-2.4 mm; lemmas 2-3.5 mm, ovate, sharply 5-veined, finely hairy or scaberulous, erose at the rounded tip; palea 4-5 times as long as wide; anthers 0.3-1.5 mm; 2n=14. Swamps and shallow water; Nf. to Minn., s. to N.C. and Mo. (Torreyochloa p.; Glyceria p.; P. fernaldii, plants at the small end of the range in all dimensions)

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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