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Annual or perennial, slender. Leaf blades linear or broadly linear, flat. Inflorescence an open panicle; pedicels filiform. Spikelets ovate to rotund, laterally compressed or globose, florets several to many, glumes and florets horizontally spreading, disarticulating above glumes and between florets; glumes subequal, shorter than florets, narrowly ovate to orbicular, 3–5-veined, margins broad, scarious, apex hooded; lemmas tightly overlapping, orbicular to oblate, deeply concave, papery to leathery, 5–11-veined, back gibbous, usually slightly keeled, margins broad, membranous, appressed to floret above, base cordate, apex obtuse, cuspidate or 2-lobed; palea slightly or much shorter than lemma, lanceolate to orbicular, keels narrowly winged. Stamens 1–3. Caryopsis plumply elliptic; hilum round to elliptic, or linear.
Spikelets 4–20-fld, disarticulating above the glumes and between the lemmas, broad and laterally compressed, orbicular to cordate or triangular; glumes very broad, 3–9-veined, chartaceous, scarious-margined; lemmas closely imbricate, cordate, broader than long, 7–9-veined, chartaceous, the scarious margins flaring over the lemmas opposite; uppermost florets reduced; palea shorter than the lemma; panicle with very slender branches and pedicels bearing usually nodding, often purplish or brownish spikelets. 20, N. Temp., S. Amer.
Annuals or perennials. Leaf-blades flat or rolled. Inflorescence a loose or contracted panicle. Spikelets several-to many-flowered, slightly laterally compressed, broad, often cordate; glumes persistent, subequal, 3–9-nerved; lemmas closely imbricate, broad, cordate at the base, horizontally spreading, papery with broad scarious margins, 7–9-nerved; paleas shorter than the lemmas, 2-keeled, the keels often winged.
Lemmas 7-9-nerved, broadly ovate, obovate to almost reniform from a deeply cordate base, chartaceous, with broad scarious margins all round, horizontally spreading.
Paleas c. 2/3-4/5 the length of the corresponding lemmas, membranous, 2-keeled, with the keels often narrowly winged.
Caryopsis enclosed by the lemma and palea, dorsally compressed; hilum c. 1/2 as long as the caryopsis, linear.
Spikelets pedicelled, solitary, several-to many-flowered, laterally compressed, densely imbricate.
Rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets.
Florets all fertile, hermaphrodite, exserted from the glumes.
Glumes 2, subequal, 3-9-nerved, persistent.
Inflorescence a loose contracted panicle.
Lodicules 2, small, lanceolate-oblong.
Annual or perennial grasses.
Ligules membranous.
Ovary glabrous.
Stamens 3.
