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Perennials, rarely annuals. Culms slender or stout, ± compressed. Leaf blades linear to filiform, apex tapering; ligule ciliate. Inflorescence a single raceme or sometimes digitate; racemes unilateral, slender; spikelets sessile, imbricate, biseriate, awned. Spikelets dorsally compressed, narrow, not gaping, florets 2(or 3), lowermost floret fertile, 2nd male or neuter floret sometimes present, uppermost floret reduced to a rudimentary awned lemma at rachilla apex, disarticulating above glumes; callus bearded; glumes shorter or upper as long as florets, lanceolate to subulate, membranous, 1-veined, acute to shortly awned; lemma of fertile floret broadly rounded to almost flat on back, subleathery, 3-veined, midvein prominent, raised, scabrous, apex 2-toothed, awned. Caryopsis narrowly elliptic, dorsally compressed, pericarp free. x = 10.
Tufted perennials with wiry culms. Leaf-blades flat and linear or involute and filiform; ligule a ciliate rim. Inflorescence a solitary (rarely paired) terminal 1-sided spike, the spikelets appressed to the rhachis in 2 rows. Spikelets 2–3-flowered, lanceolate-elliptic, dorsally compressed, exceeding the glumes, glabrous (except for the callus of the florets); glumes lanceolate, membranous, 1-nerved, minutely bidentate, terminating in a short awn-point, the lower glume 3–3.5 mm. long, the upper 5.5–7.5 mm. long. Lower floret hermaphrodite; lemma narrowly elliptic, dorsally compressed, indurate, scaberulous, prominently awned from the sinus of the minutely bidentate tip; middle floret (when present) ♂ or sometimes hermaphrodite, similar to the lower but smaller; upper floret ♂. Caryopsis narrowly oblong, dorsally flattened.
Spikelets 2–3-flowered, sessile, alternate in 2 rows on a tough axis, disarticulating above the glumes; glumes unequal, membranous, shorter than the spikelet, 1-nerved, the superior longer than the inferior, minutely 2-toothed at the apex, terminating in a short awn; lowermost floret fertile; fertile lemma elliptic, dorsally compressed, indurate, prominently awned from the sinus of the minutely 2-toothed apex; middle floret (when present) male or sometimes fertile, similar to the fertile one but smaller; uppermost floret male or sterile.
Inflorescence a solitary (rarely paired) terminal, 1-sided raceme.
Caryopsis narrowly oblong, dorsally compressed.
