Hermaphroditic. Perennials; tufted, mostly without lateral or downward tending cataphyllous shoots, tufts dense to loose, medium sized, green or bluish-grey green; tillers all or mostly extravaginal, cataphyllous, erect, all or most flowering within a season, next year's shoots set late in the growing season. Culms (30--) 50--80 (--90) cm tall, slightly compressed, mostly erect, leafy; culms and peduncles smooth, glabrous; nodes terete, 2--6 exerted, uppermost in distal 1/2 to 1/4 of culm. Leaves; leaf sheaths terete, basal most sheaths, bulb absent, smooth or nearly so; bases of basal sheaths smooth, glabrous, flag-leaf sheath margins fused 10--20% the length, 2--10(--12) cm, 0.45--1(--1.1) x long as its blade; throats; collars flared outward; ligules 0.2--0.4 (--0.8) mm long, abaxially sparsely to densely scabrous, upper margin minutely ciliolate apices truncate; of sterile shoots absent, new shoots set in the fall and like those of the culm; blades (5--) 7--12 (--18) cm long, 0.8--1.5 (--2.8) mm wide, mostly flat, appressed or abruptly ascending to spreading, straight or somewhat lax, abaxially smooth or lightly scabrous, margins scabrous, adaxially moderately scabrous, narrowly prow-tipped. cauline blades graduated distally, the uppermost somewhat reduced but as long or longer than their sheaths, new shoots set in the autumn. Panicles (3--) 7--16 (--20 cm) long, generally 1/4--2/5 as broad as long at maturity, erect or lax in shade forms, slightly contracted, or open, narrowly lanceoloid to ovoid, sparsely to moderately congested, peduncles smooth; axis with 2--6 branches per node, proximal intenode smooth; primary branches ascending to widely spreading, fairly straight, slender to moderately stout, 2--3 angled, angles moderately to densely scabrous. Spikelets 3--5.5 mm long, to 2.5--3.5 x long as wide, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, laterally compressed, not bulbiferous, usually not glaucous; florets (1--) 2--6, hermaphroditic; rachilla internodes mostly less than 1 mm long, smooth, muriculate, or scabrous, usually softly puberulent, infrequently hispidulous, rarey totally glabrous; glumes subulate to narrowly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels smooth or lightly scabrous, apices sharply acute to acuminate; lower glumes 3-veined, long tapered to a slender point, 6.4--11 x long as wide; upper glumes shorter than or subequaling lowest lemma; calluses webbed, hairs sparse and often short, rarely absent; lemmas 2.4--4 mm long, proximal lemmas less than 1/5 as wide as long, 5-veined, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels and marginal veins short villous, intermediate veins glabrous, between veins smooth or muriculate, glabrous, intermediate veins obscure, margins glabrous, apices acute, usually bronzy colored in part; paleas scabrous over the keels, intercostal region muriculate, glabrous. Flowers bisexual; lodicules 0.5 mm long, lanceolate, lobed; anthers (0.8--) 1.2--1.8 (--2) mm long; caryopses 1.3--1.6 mm long, subcylindrical in cross-section, very shallowly sulcate, pale to light reddish-brown, hilum 0.2 mm, round, grain free from palea. 2n = 28, 33, 35, 42, (ca. 49, 50, 56, 63, 70). Genotype: Ss