Description: "… the most common of any other grass, it rises to the hight of 4 to 8 feet $ never bears any flower or seed that I ever observed and suppose therefore that it must propegate by means of the root: common to all praries in this country." [Lewis.] (Phillips. 2003. pp. 36-37. Thwaites. 1904. Vol. 6, Part 2, p. 147.)

Journal Entry 1804 Jul 27: "… we saw and examined a curious collection of graves or mounds, on the south side of the river. Not far from a low piece of land and a pond, is a tract of about two hundred acres in circumference, which is covered with mounds of different heights, shapes, and sizes; some of sand, and some of both earth and sand; the largest being nearest the river. These mounds indicate the position of the ancient villages of the Ottoes, before they retired to the protection of the Pawnees." (Lewis. 1814. Vol. 1, p. 35.)