Culms tufted, 5-20 cm, scabrous below the nodes; sheaths and the very short, usually involute and twisted blades scaberulous; infl 1-5 cm, dense and almost spike-like, with short appressed branches, the pedicels mostly shorter than the spikelets; glumes 2.7-3.3 mm; lemmas 2.5-3 mm, both awned, the awn 3.3-3.7 mm; 2n=14. Native of Europe, intr. in dry sandy soil near the coast, from s. N.Y. to Va.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
