Early spring grass

Description: Loosely caespitose annual or short lived perennial to 1 m high.
Leaves with sheath smooth or glabrous, often becoming loose; ligule scarcely 1 mm long; blade c. 4 mm wide, sometimes hairy.
nflorescence 7–18 cm long, of 2–10 racemes 2–10 cm long, ± densely clothed with spikelets; pedicels 0.5–2.5 mm long, pilose with hairs to 3 mm long. Spikelets 4.5–6 mm long, widest c. 30% of its length from the base, hairy. Lower glume cupular around and fused to the thickened internode, pale or becoming brownish, purplish or black, c. 0.3 mm long; upper equalling the spikelet, with a bristle to 0.8 mm long, densely hairy in the lower 30–70%. Sterile lemma a little shorter than the upper glume, mucronate, hairy, palea absent. Fertile floret c. 2.5 mm, terminating in a mucro c. 1 mm long.