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: Fields, roadsides, wastelots, and other disturbed areas.

Flowers: April-June

Origin: Introduced from Eurasia

Growth Duration: Annual

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Wind

Plants annuals or winter annuals, up to 1.5 m. tall, the culms hollow.

Sheaths open; auricles prominent; ligules 1 mm. long; blades 5-20 mm. broad.

Inflorescence a spike 5-12 cm. long, awned or awnless; spikelets 2- to 5-flowered, borne in a terminal spike flatwise to the continuous rachis, 1 per node, sessile; glumes firm, keeled, strongly 3-nerved; lemmas broad, lopsidedly keeled; stamens 3.