Whitegrass is a native, perennial, warm-season grass growing from 12 to 36 inches high (but sometimes to 55+ inches) with stems that are weak but usually erect, but if recumbent, they may root at the nodes. Stems are mostly smooth but the nodes may be hairy.

Leaves: Blades are 3 to 7 inches long (6-17 cm) and 6-11 mm wide, droopy, usually smooth on top and hairy under. The drooping leaves have tiny teeth on the edges which can easily tear clothing and cut flesh, hence the alternate common name "cutgrass". The leaf sheaths are mostly smooth, dull green, usually without hair. Ligules are 1 to 3 mm long. The leaf mid-vein is prominent but not shiny as in the similar looking Japanese Stilt Grass (Microstegium vimineum)

Inflorescence: Flowering heads form in an open panicle, up to 10 inches long with one panicle branch per stem node. Branches are wiry. The heads are usually fully emerged from the leaf sheaths, unlike Rice Cutgrass.

Flowering: Spikelets in the Leersia genus are considered 'naked', that is, without glumes. Spikelets are 2.5 to 3.6 mm long and overlap. They form a single row and are appressed along the upper part of each branch of the panicle and the lower 1/3 of the branch is free of spikelets. Lemmas may have only a few straight hair on the margins and keels and the lemma body is strongly keeled and either without hair or with very short soft hair. There is only 1 floret per spikelet in the Leersias and this species has 2 anthers per floret. Florets are somewhat flattened in appearance.

Seed: The seeds look like rice grains and thus are not easily confused with grass seeds of other genus. Mature fruit is reddish-brown.

Habitat: Whitegrass is a warm-season grass found in moist shady places in wooded areas and near streams. It grows from short scaly rhizomes which have a braided appearance. It is palatable to browsers.

Names: The genus, Leersia, is named for 18th Century German botanist Johann Daniel Leers. The species name, virginica refers to the state of Virginia where the species was first described. The author name for the plant classification - ‘Willd.’ refers to Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765-1812), German botanist, a founder of the study of the geographic distribution of plants. He was director and curator of the Botanic Garden of Berlin.

Comparison: The other species of cutgrass that is similar is Rice Cutgrass, L. oryzoides. Compared to Rice Cutgrass, Whitegrass leaves are narrower, shorter, less sharp, and flowering heads are shorter. The heads are usually fully emerged from the leaf sheaths, unlike Rice Cutgrass. The lower flowering branches are solitary whereas Rice Cutgrass may have several branches per node. The spikelets are smaller than Rice Cutgrass and also overlap whereas Rice Cutgrass spikelets barely overlap.