Arborescent bamboos, sometimes shrubby. Rhizomes leptomorph, with running underground stems. Culms diffuse, erect to nodding; internodes substantially grooved above branches; wall thick, cavity with granular or spongy pith; nodes prominent. Mid-culm branches 3, subequal or central dominant. Culm sheaths deciduous, leathery or thickly papery, setose; ligule truncate; blade large, triangular or lanceolate, rarely strap-shaped. Leaves usually medium to large-sized, transverse veins distinct. Inflorescence fully bracteate, partially iterauctant, lateral, racemose, sessile, prophyllate. Spikelets many flowered, gradually enlarged; basal bracts and glumes often with basal axillary buds developed into secondary spikelets; basal 1–4 florets sometimes sterile. Glumes usually 2; lemma larger and broader than glumes, many veined; palea obtuse, 2-keeled; lodicules 3, subequal. Stamens 6; filaments free. Ovary narrowly ellipsoid or fusiform; style short; stigmas 3, plumose. Fruit a caryopsis, ovoid to ellipsoid, beaked. New shoots spring–early summer.
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