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Spikelets several-flowered, sessile in two rows on one side of a flattened rachis, the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes, the first two florets sterile, the third fertile, the upper ones remote, much smaller, staminate or neuter; first glume short, acute, 1-nerved; second glume acute or subacuminate, 2-to 3-nerved, the nerves approximate, the lateral ones usually with a conspicuous row of glands, the central nerve excurrent from the middle of the back in a stout or rather slender divergent awn; florets bearded on the callus; lemmas acute or acuminate, sometimes minutely toothed, 3-nerved, the margins variously ciliate, awned from the back or from between the teeth, the awn of the second sterile lemma usually much longer than the others; palea subacute or subobtuse, as long as the lemma, narrow, the nerves sometimes excurrent in short awns.
Spikelets several-flowered with the 2 lowermost florets barren, the 3rd fertile and the distal 1(3) much reduced, laterally compressed, sessile, alternate in 2 rows on a tough axis, disarticulating above the glumes but not between the florets; glumes unequal, herbaceous with hyaline margins, the inferior small and lanceolate with an awn-point, the superior as long as and enclosing the florets, lanceolate, boat-shaped, strongly keeled, shortly awned from the apex and also bearing an oblique dorsal awn about as long as itself; lemmas membranous, long-awned from the back or near the apex, conspicuously ciliate, that of the fertile floret accompanied by a ciliate palea, those of the barren florets without a palea; uppermost floret(s) broadly linear, sometimes shortly awned and accompanied by a palea.
Spikelets sessile, pectinately arranged in 2 rows on one side of a flat rachis, articulated above the glumes, with several lemmas, of which only one is fertile; first glume small, nearly hyaline, 1-veined; second glume nearly as long as the spikelet, firm on the round exposed back, thin on the sides, conspicuously 3-veined, the midvein prolonged into a stout divergent awn from near the middle of the glume; lemmas thin, obscurely 3-veined, the two lower empty, without paleas, the third with a palea and a fl, the upper 1-3 sterile and much reduced; midvein of the lower 3 lemmas prolonged into an awn from below the tip; perennials with narrow lvs, membranous ligule, and a solitary, usually curved spike. 20, New World and Afr.
Inflorescence a solitary raceme bearing pectinate spikelets on a semiterete (crescentic in section) rhachis; leaves often aromatic.
Caryopsis ovoid to narrowly ellipsoid.
