Culms in large loose tufts, 3-6 dm, without rhizomes, the soft blades crowded near the base, 2-3 mm wide, the cauline ones narrower and short; infl 6-15 cm, very loose and open, the elongate, capillary branches single or paired, widely spreading, bearing a few distal spikelets; spikelets 4-6-fld, the rachilla joints 1-1.3 mm, glabrous; first glume lanceolate, 1.8-2.8 mm, 1-veined, the second ovate or elliptic, 2.2-3.7 mm, 3-veined; lemmas oblong, 3.2-4.4 mm, usually distinctly 5-veined, short-hairy on the keel and marginal veins at least below the middle, usually also on the intermediate veins and interveinal areas near the base, scarious at the broadly rounded or subtruncate tip, not webbed; anthers ca 1 mm; 2n=28. Moist woods; N.J. to Mich. and Ill., s. to Fla. and Tex.

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

This species, as I know it, is a deep woodland grass found in slightly acid soil in low beech and sweet gum, pin oak, and red maple woods. All of our specimens are from southern Indiana, although it is reported to occur in Michigan.

……

Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 7

Wetland Indicator Status: FAC

Deam (1929): Short specimens of this species without the base might be confuse with large, erect specimens of Poa annua. This last species always has smooth, more acute glumes, and the lemmas are not pubescent between the nerves.