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Annuals, caespitose to decumbent, bisexual. Leaves: ligule membranous; blade rolled or once-folded in bud. Inflorescences paniculate, more or less pyramidal, open. Spikelets pedicellate, laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes (and between florets or not) or not disarticulating (cultivated forms), with (1–) 2–4 (–6) bisexual florets; rachilla extension with incomplete floret. Glumes 2, lanceolate, subequal, exceeding or sometimes shorter than remainder of spikelet, awnless, dorsally rounded, 3–12-nerved. Callus pointed. Lemmas entire or dentate or slightly lobed, sometimes with 2 terminal teeth or bristles on lobes, awnless or 1-awned, dorsally rounded, 5–9-nerved; awn dorsal, arising well below apex, usually geniculate. Stamens 3. Ovary hairy. Caryopsis dorsiventrally compressed, longitudinally grooved; hilum long-linear.
Annuals. Leaf-blades flat. Inflorescence an open, or rarely contracted, panicle with large pendulous spikelets. Spikelets 2–6-flowered (rarely more), the lower 1–3 florets hermaphrodite, the others ± reduced, the terminal floret barren or vestigial; rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and sometimes between the florets, or not at all in cultivated races; glumes lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, equal or almost so, rounded on the back, scarious-membranous or herbaceous-membranous, with thin margins, 7–11-nerved; lemmas lanceolate to ovate or oblong, shorter than or equalling the glumes, rarely exserted, rounded on the back, herbaceous, becoming hardened, 5–9-nerved, with a geniculate (or rarely straight) awn from the back, or awnless in some cultivated races; paleas shorter than the lemmas, 2-keeled; stamens 3; stigmas 2.
Spikelets 2–5-fld, articulated above the glumes and usually between the lemmas; rachilla often hirsute, at least at the base of the lemmas; glumes nearly equal, membranous or chartaceous, exceeding the lemmas, mostly 5–11-veined; lemmas indurate, tapering to an entire or often 2-toothed tip, firm below, often scarious distally, rounded on the back, obscurely 5–9-veined or prominently so distally; awn arising from the back of the lemma, often geniculate near the middle, or wanting; annuals with broad flat lvs and ample panicles of large, often nodding spikelets. As now limited, ca 15 spp. of Eurasia.
Lemmas usually shorter than or sometimes just as long as the glumes (not including the awns!), rarely exceeding them, 5-9-nerved, awned (muticous in cultivated forms), membraneous at first becoming chartaceous or chartaceous-coriaceous with age but with a scarious apex; with the apex acute to acuminate, more rarely obtuse, 2-dentate to 2-lobed (sometimes the lobes decurrent into bristles); awn dorsal, inserted at the middle or somewhat higher, geniculate, twisted below (straight in some cultivars).
Spikelets 2-several-flowered, rather large, pedicelled, moderately laterally compressed to almost terete, awned; the lower 1-3(-5) florets bisexual, the following smaller in size, male, sterile or reduced to a varying degree; rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets, or sometimes above the glumes only, pilose or glabrous.
Glumes 2, persistent, equal, subequal or sometimes the inferior much shorter, dorsally rounded, membranous, margins hyaline, with the apex acute or acuminate.
Paleas shorter than the corresponding lemmas, 2-nerved, 2-keeled, thinly membranous.
Callus short, rarely elongated, obtuse to acute, usually hairy in wild species.
Styles distinct, rather short; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted.
Ligule a scarious or hyaline membrane.
Inflorescence an open secund panicle.
Lodicules 2, relatively large.
Ovary densely pilose.
Annual grasses.
Stamens 3.
