The features that distinguish this brome from all others are the perennial growth form, the spreading or drooping panicle branches, the nodes not completely covered by the leaf sheaths, and the flat or convex lemmas with hairs confined to two marginal rows. Wet meadows, damp thickets. Perennial herb from thickened rootstocks. Upright, branched or unbranched, up to 4 feet tall, smooth.
Grains oblongoid to lanceoloid, smooth.
They call the family Poaceae. The grains are eaten by waterfowl.