Tufted, 1-2.5 dm, without rhizomes, leafy chiefly below the middle; lvs soft, 1-2 mm wide; ligule 2.5-3.5 mm; infl loose and few-fld, the branches usually paired, spreading or ascending, bearing usually a single spikelet; spikelets 4-6 mm, 2-4-fld; glumes lanceolate, tapering to the tip, 3-veined, the first 2.6-4.2 mm, the second 2.8-3.4 mm; lemmas 2.8-4.3 mm, obtuse, obscurely 5-veined, the keel and marginal veins stronger than the intermediate ones and densely sericeous below the middle, not webbed, or only scantily so; anthers 0.7-0.9 mm; 2n=42. Summits of higher mts.; Nf. and e. Que. to Mt. Marcy, N.Y.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
