[2] It is native to subarctic and temperate Eurasia, and widely introduced elsewhere, including North America, Iceland, the Southern Cone of South America, the Korean Peninsula, Australia, and New Zealand.

Its brown nodes are minutely to densely pubescent, with these soft and wavy hairs growing up to 1.2 mm (0.047 in) long.

The ovate-lanceolate spikelets are 1.5–2.2 cm (0.59–0.87 in) long, with the rachilla occasionally visible at maturity.

[5] In its introduced habitat in North America, B. racemosus occurs in waste places, fields, roadsides, and gravelly hills in scattered locations throughout the United States and Canada.

[4] In South America, the grass occurs in the southern Andes of Argentina and Chile.