Japan Flora: Stout, glaucescent perennial with long creeping rhizomes; culms 4-5 mm. thick above the base, 40-100 cm. long, erect, smooth, terete; leaf­blades nearly flat, rather thick, 10-30 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide, smooth, glabrous, very acute; sheaths terete; ligules 1-2 mm. long, truncate; panicles erect, 10-25 cm. long, 3-5 cm. wide, narrowly oblong, densely spicate, the branches 3- to 5-nate, nearly smooth, rather thick; spikelets ovate, glaucous green, sometimes with a purple hue, 6-8 mm. long, 3- or 4- flowered; glumes lanceolate, 3-nerved, acute, 5-6 mm. long; lemmas 5-nerved, 5-6 mm. long, glabrous on the sides, the keel pubescent on lower half, the marginal nerves pubescent near base, the web scanty; anthers 2-25 mm. long. July-Aug. Sandy shores.

Hokkaido; rare. Sakhalin, Kuriles, Ussuri, Kamchatka, and nw. N. America.