"Its growth begins approximately the same time as Big bluestem; flowering is during July and August. It attains heights up to 8 feet.

"The flowers are yellowish, a color imparted by the conspicuous extrusion of the yellow anthers. The spikelets are borne in pairs, one sessile and perfect, the other reduced to a hairy pedicel. The spikelets are borne on short racemes which branch from the rachis in paniculate fashion. The fertile spikelets terminate in a bent awn which is about four times the length of the fruit itself.