The ovate-lanceolate spikelets are , including the awns long. The glabrous or slightly scabrous lemmas are prominently nerved and long, with awns long. The spikelets have long, thin, whitish awns, which give the inflorescence its texture. It forms a narrow inflorescence of spikelets, each fruit with three awns. The spikelets are villous and the awns are spreading or twisted. In grasses awns typically extend from the lemmas of the florets. The anthers are forked somewhat like a snake's tongue, with two awns at the tip. Some spikelets have one or three awns, and some have none. Stamens have anthers with extended tube-like structures called "awns" through which pollen falls when mature. Retrorse barbs can be found on the callus, the lemmas, and the awns. The fruit is a flat cypsela with a pappus of 2 or more awns. The awns are long, arising below the lemma. The barbed awns can injure flesh. Seeds are elliptical, yellowish-brown and about a long with four to eight awns. The twisted and strongly divergent awns are long.