Culms tufted, very slender, erect or reclining, 1.5-4 dm; sheaths glabrous or minutely ciliate; ligule a band of hairs to 0.5 mm; cauline lvs few and distant, spreading or reflexed, 1-5 cm נ2-5 mm, with thin green margins, much constricted at base, glabrous above or puberulent at base, glabrous to puberulent beneath; primary panicle soon long-exsert, 2-6 cm, ovoid with short, spreading branches and few spikelets; spikelets glabrous or minutely hairy, ellipsoid or obovoid, somewhat pointed, 0.9-1.5 mm; first glume a third to two-fifths as long, ovate, obtusely pointed; second glume and sterile lemma shorter than the fr; autumnal phase copiously and often fastigiately branched from the lower nodes, sometimes forming dense mats, the blades 1-2 cm, the panicles 1 cm, equaling or barely exceeding the lvs; 2n=18. Bogs and wet woods, or rarely in dry pine-land; coastal plain from s. N.J. to La. (P. chamaelonche; Dichanthelium dichotomum var. e.)

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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