Culms loosely clustered, erect or nearly so, 3-8 dm, glabrous; sheaths glabrous throughout or sparsely ciliate distally; ligule a band of hairs 2-3 mm; blades strongly ascending or subappressed, 6-10 cm נ3-6 mm, glabrous, varying to minutely puberulent beneath and sparsely ciliate at base; primary panicle 6-10 cm, narrow, ca 3-4 times as long as wide, with strongly ascending branches; glabrous or nearly so; spikelets pubescent, obovoid to ellipsoid, 1.3-1.8 mm, the first glume a third as long, broadly rounded, the second glume and sterile lemma equaling the fr; autumnal phase reclining, bearing numerous short ascending branches, these in turn fastigiately branched, the blades much smaller, often puberulent, the panicles small and the later ones progressively reduced; 2n=18. Moist to wet, sandy or peaty shores and pine-barrens near the coast from N.S. to Fla. and Tex.; also in nw. Ind. and in Mich. and s. Ont. (P. eatonii; Dichanthelium acuminatum var. densiflorum; Dichanthelium acuminatum ssp. s.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
