The sterile spikelet of the pair is absent, represented only by the stalk which is shorter than the sessile spikelet. The rachis and sterile stalk are covered by silvery hairs. Woods, fields, roadsides. Tufted perennial grass from rhizomes. Upright, smooth, to 4 feet tall, branched above.
Grains ellipsoid, smooth.
This family is Poaceae according to Gleason and Cronquist.