Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across most of North America to the Atlantic Coast.

Habitat: Wet to dry waste areas, including vernal pools where the water is brackish.

Flowers: May-August

Origin: Introduced from Eurasia

Growth Duration: Annual

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Wind

Tufted annual, the culms 0.5-7 dm. tall, often decumbent and freely rooting below.

Sheaths open, smooth to scabrous; ligules 3-10 mm. long, strongly puberulent, narrowed to a blunt, lacerate tip; blades flat, scabrous, 4-7 mm. broad.

Inflorescence a dense panicle 2-15 cm. long; spikelets 1-flowered, articulate below the glume; glumes 2-3.5 mm. long, tawny with age, awned from between very short, rounded lobes, the awns 6-10 mm. long; lemmas about half as long as the glumes, smooth and shining, the tip rounded, with a slender, terminal awn exceeding the glumes by about 1.5 mm.; paleas subequal to the lemmas, 2-nerved.