Sheaths usually pubescent, often densely so, rarely glabrous. Panicles to 77.5 cm long, usually 1.3-5.5 times as long as wide; branches to 33 cm long, typically widely divergent, sometimes reflexed in the lower 1/3 of the panicle. Spikelets commonly with a brownish cast, relatively loosely imbricate.
Calamovilfa longifolia var. magna grows on dunes and sandy shores around lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, with outlying stations in sand or sandy soils.