Plants without rhizomes, forming tufts or small clumps. Flowering stems 35–170 cm long, circular in cross‑section or somewhat flattened, glabrous. Leaf sheaths rounded on the back or slightly angled, glabrous or sparsely hairy at the tip, the ligule 0.3–0.8 mm long, the hairs much longer than the minute, membranous portion. Leaf blades 4–65 cm long, 2–8 mm wide, flat or with the margins loosely inrolled, glabrous or sparsely hairy on the upper side at the base. Inflorescences 10–35 cm long, dense, narrow, spikelike panicles, linear in outline, the spikelets on short, strongly ascending branches. Spikelets 4–7 mm long, with 5–11 florets. Lower glume 3.8–7.0 mm long, about as long as or slightly longer than the rest of the spikelet, narrowly ovate, sharply pointed at the tip, 1‑nerved, sometimes with glandular secretions along the midnerve. Upper glume 4–7 mm long, about as long as or slightly longer than the rest of the spikelet, narrowly ovate, sharply pointed at the tip, 1‑nerved. Lemmas 1.5–3.5 mm long, elliptic‑ovate. Anthers 0.4–1.0 mm long. Fruits 0.9–1.2 mm long. 2n=40. July–October.

Scattered in the southern half of the state north to Boone and Pike Counties (southeastern U.S. west to Kansas and Texas). Glades and upland prairies; also old fields, native grass plantings, roadsides, railroads, ditches, cracks in sidewalks, and open, disturbed areas.

The sterile hybrid between T. strictus and T. flavus (T. ¥oklahomensis (Feath.) Feath. ex Chase) was first reported for Missouri from Boone County by Kucera (1957), who later found an additional site in Butler County (Schuckman and Kucera, 1984). Crooks and Kucera (1973) presented cytological and morphological evidence for the hybrid origin of this taxon. It has a relatively narrow, dense, but not spikelike inflorescence and produces a greasy or sticky substance at the upper stem nodes and inflorescence branches, as in T. flavus. The spikelets are somewhat intermediate in morphology between the two parents, with at least some purple coloration, but do not produce functional pollen or fruits. Outside of Missouri, it has been found thus far only in Oklahoma and Louisiana (McKenzie et al., 1987). Because T. strictus tends to flower somewhat later during most years than does T. flavus, hybridization between them apparently is possible only rarely, in spite of their co‑occurrence at a number of disturbed sites in the state.