Culms stout, loosely tufted from a purplish, often somewhat decumbent base, 5-15 dm, without rhizomes; lvs 1-2 mm wide; ligule ovate or triangular, 2.5-5 mm; infl declined or nodding, 1-3 dm, fairly open, its branches in sets of ca 5, bearing numerous spikelets at and beyond the middle; spikelets 2-4-fld; glumes lance-ovate, the first 1.9-2.7 mm, the second 2-3.1 mm; lemmas 2.1-3 mm, 3-veined or with an obscure additional pair of veins, webbed at base, hairy on the lower half or two-thirds of the veins, glabrous or scabrous toward the golden tip; rachilla glabrous; anthers 0.8-1.2 mm; 2n=28, 42. Wet meadows and damp soil; circumboreal, s. to Va., Mo., and N.M.

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

An infrequent grass in the lake area in marshes and in wet prairies.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 6

Wetland Indicator Status: FACW