Coarse, tufted perennial, or sometimes annual or biennial, 2-6 dm; lvs 2-5 mm wide, often involute in age; ligules 1-2 mm; infl narrowly ovoid, 4-15 cm, becoming long-exsert, its lowest branches floriferous to the base; spikelets 3-4 mm, 2-5-fld; first glume ovate, acute, 1 mm, the second broadly ovate, subacute, 1.2-1.8 mm; lemmas 1.9-2.4 mm, ovate- oblong, minutely hairy at the base, obscurely veined, but the midvein reaching the broadly obtuse tip; anthers 0.4-0.8 mm; 2n=28. Salt-marshes and sandy shores; Mass. to Va.; Europe. (P. borreri)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
