Distribution: Occurring chiefly east of the Cascades crest in Washington; southern British Columbia to California, east to the Rocky Mountains, southern Great Plains and eastern North America.

Habitat: A weed of lawns, pastures, roadsides, railroad tracks, wastelots, and other disturbed areas.

Flowers: June-September

Origin: Introduced from Eurasia

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Wind

Perennial with elongate, scaly rhizomes, the culms decumbent and freely rooting, the upright portion 1-3 dm. tall, hollow.

Sheaths open, the collars and throats long-hairy; ligules a fringe of straight hairs 2-4 mm. long; blades flat, short, 1.5-3 mm. broad.

Inflorescence of 4 or 5 digitate, terminal spikes up to 5 cm. long; spikelets sessile, borne in two rows, one on each side of the rachis, usually 1-flowered, articulate above the glumes; glumes about 1.5 mm. long; lemmas longer than the glumes, compressed, with hairs along the 2 nerves; palea subequal to the lemma, 2-nerved.