Usually perennials, sometimes annuals. Flowering culms 40–90 cm high. Leaves: basal sheaths glabrous; blade 2.1–3.1 mm wide, glabrous. Inflorescences: rachis glabrous; branches 2.3–6 cm long, close together or far apart, appressed uniformly to axis to becoming divaricate. Spikelets appressed to spreading, usually overlapping on ultimate branches, linear to oblong, with l:w greater than 3, 5–14 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, (5–) 7–25-flowered, with (3–) 5–24 loosely overlapping bisexual florets. Glumes: lower glume 1–1.5 mm long; upper glume 1.3–2 mm long. Basal lemma lanceolate to ovate, with back straight or slightly concave in profile at apex, 1.8–2.2 mm long, entire or notched, muticous or aristulate, similar in firmness to the glumes, membranous, 3-nerved, scaberulous, glabrous; midnerve scaberulous. Upper bisexual florets similar to basal floret, usually shortly awned, with awn length not increasing acropetally after second floret. Palea 1/2–2/3 length of lemma body; body smooth, glabrous; keels minutely ciliolate. Distal incomplete florets underdeveloped with lemma awns not noticeably longer than on upper bisexual florets.
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