Culms few, erect, or geniculate at base, 6-10 dm, glabrous; sheaths glabrous or sparsely ciliate, especially distally, those of the primary stems usually with pale, glandular spots on the back; blades thin, bright green, 6-12 mm wide, glabrous, or sparsely ciliate at base; primary panicle 6-10 cm, about as wide, its lower branches ascending; spikelets ellipsoid, pointed, glabrous, 2-2.5 mm; first glume subacute, two-fifths as long; second glume and sterile lemma distinctly surpassing the fr; autumnal phase erect or nearly so, sparsely and loosely branched from the middle nodes, the branches 1-2 dm, the blades 2-5 cm נ2-5 mm, the panicles much reduced, about equaling the uppermost lvs; 2n=18. Moist or wet woods; N.J. to s. Ill., s. to Ga. and La. Vegetatively resembling luxuriant plants of no. 30 [Panicum dichotomum L.].
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.