Slender annuals or perennials. Leaf-blades flat; ligule very shortly membranous with a ciliate fringe. Inflorescence a spiciform panicle, at least the larger branchlets terminating in a bristle. Spikelets oblong to lanceolate, ± plano-convex, awnless; glumes both shorter than the spikelet; lower floret ♂ or barren, as long as the spikelet, the lemma herbaceous, sulcate, the palea hyaline except for the enlarged coriaceous keels which clasp the sides of the upper lemma; upper lemma crustaceous, gibbous, rugose or granular, its margins inrolled and clasping only the edges of the palea. Caryopsis elliptic-oblong, dorsally compressed.
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