Culms slender to robust, 3-12 dm, glabrous; sheaths glabrous; blades scaberulous, to 10(-20) cm, 2-5 mm wide; infl lax, slender, 1-3 dm; spikelets 5-9.5 mm; glumes scabrous on the keel, the first narrowly oblong, often 3-veined, 3.5-5.5 mm, the second obovate-oblong, 3-5-veined, 0.7-1.1 mm wide in side-view, acute to mucronate; first lemma 3.9-7.2 mm, glabrous except for the scaberulous tip; awnless or with an awn to 2.5 mm; second lemma 3.6-6.5 mm, scabrous, with a bent awn 3.5-7 mm; third floret, when present, smaller, awned; anthers ca 1 mm; 2n=14. Swamps and wet woods; Mass. to n. Fla., w. to O., s. Mo., and La. (Trisetum p.; S. palustris)

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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