Plants more or less densely cespitose. Culms usually less than 30 cm, stiffly ascending to spreading, densely pubescent. Midculm sheaths nearly as long as the internodes; midculm blades usually 2-6.5 cm, usually less than 8 times as long as wide. Primary panicles usually well-exserted. Spikelets mostly 1.6-1.8 mm.
Dichanthelium acuminatum subsp. sericeum grows in warm or hot ground around geysers and hot springs in the Rocky Mountains from Banff, Alberta south to Yellowstone National Park and east to Bighorn County, Wyoming.