Culms 5-10 dm, erect, several together from long, scaly rhizomes; sheaths glabrous to densely pilose; blades 2-4 dm נ6-12 mm, glabrous to pilose on both sides; panicle pyramidal, 1-4 dm, its branches spreading or ascending; branchlets scabrous; spikelets usually crowded and subsecund, ovoid to lanceolate, 2.2-3.9 mm, often slightly falcate, usually set at an angle to the pedicel; first glume appearing erect, triangular-ovate, a third to half as long as the spikelet; second glume and sterile lemma sharply veined, acute to acuminate; 2n=18, 36. Moist, especially sandy soil; N.J. to s. O. and w. Mo., s. to the Gulf. (P. rhizomatum)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.