Bogs, wet meadows, sometimes in saline areas. Perennial grass from thickened rootstocks. Upright, stout, usually unbranched, smooth, up to 5 feet tall, glaucous or bluish green. Borne in spikelets, with numerous spikelets in contracted, spike-like panicles, the panicles erect, up to 8 inches long, up to 2 inches wide, purplish.
Grains ellipsoid, hairy at the tip.
This family is Poaceae according to Gleason and Cronquist.