Low grasses, with flat leaf-blades and generally narrow panicles. Spikelets 2-4-flowered, the flowers all perfect. Two lower scales empty, extending beyond the flowering scales, membranous; flowering scales entire, membranous, with a tuft of hairs at the base. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmas plumose. [Name in honor of J. D. Dupont, French botanist.]

Two arctic species, both circumboreal. Type species: Dupontia Fisheri R. Br.

1. Dupontia Fisheri R. Br. Fisher's Dupontia

Fig. 629

D. Fisheri R. Br. Parry's Voy. App. 291. 1824.

Smooth and glabrous, culms 5'-12' tail, erect, simple. Sheaths overlapping; ligule 1" long or less; blades 1'-6' long, 1"-2" wide, flat; panicle usually contracted, 1 1/2'-3 1//2' long, the branches less than 1 1/2' long, erect, or sometimes ascending; spikelets few, about 2-flowered, 3"-4" long; empty basal scales thin, generally acute, the first 1-nerved, somewhat shorter than the second, which is usually 3-nerved, the lateral nerves often vanishing at about the middle; flowering scales 2i"-3" long, 1-nerved or obscurely 3-nerved; basal hairs about 1/2" long.

Arctic regions of North America. Also in arctic Europe and Asia. Summer.