canadensis, without others (Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming); and no state has C. c. var.

langsdorffii (Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wisconsin); and only seven have both C. c. var.

macouniana (Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Oregon, and Washington)[4][5][6] All three varieties are native to parts of Canada: the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan have all three varieties; British Columbia, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Yukon Territory have both C. c. var.

langsdorffii; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have both C. c. var.

[7] It is a perennial grass with a branching stem reaching heights between 60 centimeters and 1.5 meters.

The inflorescence is up to 25 centimeters long and may be open and loose or narrow and densely packed with spikelets.

It is a tough rhizomatous grass that provides soil stability in wet areas and is one of the first plants to reestablish on sites of recent oil spills.