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Caespitose perennials. Leaf-blades linear, flat or folded, sometimes setaceous. Inflorescence a narrow panicle, erect or nodding. Spikelets 2–6-flowered, the florets similar, hermaphrodite, or the uppermost ± reduced; rhachilla disarticulating below each floret, slender, hairy, produced as a short bristle or ending with a rudimentary lemma; glumes unequal, keeled, hyaline to herbaceous, the lower 1–3-nerved, the upper 3–5-nerved, acute; lemmas narrowly lanceolate in profile, enclosed by or more often exserted from the glumes, herbaceous with hyaline tips and margins, sometimes becoming indurated, 5–11-nerved, bifid, geniculately awned from the upper part of the back; palea shorter than the lemma, 2-keeled; stamens 3; stigmas 2.
Spikelets 2-6-flowered, awned, laterally compressed, usually pedicelled, narrowly oblong to elliptic-oblong in outline, relatively large; florets all similar, hermaphrodite, the terminal usually reduced; rhachilla slender, disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets, pilose, extended into a short bristle beyond the uppermost floret or terminated by a vestigial lemma; callus short, villous.
Lemmas usually exserted from or rarely enclosed by the glumes, narrowly lanceolate in profile, acute, dorsally awned, herbaceous, often with both apex and margins hyaline, rarely somewhat indurated at maturity, 5-11-nerved, 2-fid, sometimes with the apical lobes drawn out into slender bristles; awn usually inserted in the upper 1/2 of the lemma, usually geniculate and twisted beneath the bend.
Caryopsis oblong to narrowly elliptic-oblong in outline, slightly laterally compressed, usually with a longitudinal frontal furrow, pilose towards the apex, falling out enclosed between lemma and palea; embryo small; hilum linear, up to 1/2 as long as the caryopsis.
Glumes 2, unequal, persistent, keeled, herbaceous, sometimes hyaline, acute to acuminate; the inferior shorter, 1-3-nerved; the superior 3-5-nerved (rarely with a short, faint additional nerve).
Perennial; spikelets erect or spreading; first glume 1–3-veined, the second 3(5)-veined; otherwise like Avena. (Avena in part; Avenula) 90, Old World.
Ovary pilose towards the apex; styles short, with the stigmas laterally exserted.
Paleas shorter than the lemmas, 2-keeled, herbaceous to hyaline.
Inflorescence a panicle, usually narrow, erect or drooping.
Lodicules 2, relatively large.
Ligule a hyaline membrane.
Caespitose perennials.
Stamens 3.
