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Perennials, often decumbent, sometimes annuals. Leaf-blades linear; ligule membranous. Inflorescence of paired or digitate racemes, the former often interlocked back to back, terminal or axillary; internodes and pedicels clavate to inflated. Sessile spikelet dorsally compressed; callus obtuse and inserted in the concave top of the internode; lower glume chartaceous to coriaceous, convex to concave, laterally 2-keeled, sometimes winged; upper glume awned or not; lower floret ♂ with a palea; upper lemma bifid, passing between the teeth into a glabrous awn (rarely awnless). Caryopsis oblong to lanceolate, dorsally compressed. Pedicelled spikelet as large as the sessile or much smaller, often asymmetrical.
Mostly decumbent to stoloniferous or rhizomatous grasses, occasionally tufted. Leaf lamina often abruptly narrowed at base; ligule membranous. Inflorescence usually of paired apical racemes, usually one-sided and appressed; spikelets paired; pedicellate spikelet often assymetrically compressed, sometimes reduced and with shorter awns, falling entire at maturity; sessile spikelet remaining attached to a section of rachis. Spikelets containing 2 florets. Glumes as long as spikelets ± coriaceous, often keeled, sometimes winged; upper glume often shortly awned. Lower floret often male; lemma and palea ± membranous. Upper floret usually bisexual, with hyaline lemma and palea; lemma awned to mucronate.
Spikelets in pairs, all alike, perfect, but the pedicellate spikelet not always fruitful, the rachis and pedicels of the disarticulating racemes thickened; first glume indurate and rounded below, flattened, herbaceous and sometimes winged above, often cross-wrinkled or ridged, the narrow margins sharply inflexed; sterile lemma hyaline, as long as the glumes, enclosing a well-developed palea and stami-nate flower; fertile lemma hyaline, deeply bifid, awned from between the teeth, the awn geniculate, tightly twisted below the bend.
Inflorescence of paired, sometimes solitary or digitate, 1-sided racemes, those of a pair often interlocked back to back and mimicking a solitary raceme, terminal or axillary; rhachis internodes and pedicels stoutly linear to clavate or inflated, often exposed on the back of the raceme as a U-or V-shaped segment, sometimes the pedicels so short that the spikelets of a pair appear to be side by side.
Sessile spikelet dorsally compressed; callus obtuse and inserted in the concave top of the internode; inferior glume chartaceous to coriaceous, convex to concave on the back, laterally 2-keeled, often rugose, sometimes winged; superior glume awned or awnless; inferior floret male, rarely barren, with a palea; superior lemma bifid, passing between the teeth into a glabrous awn (rarely awnless).
Leaf sheaths mostly with auricles; ligule membranous; leaf laminas linear, sometimes sagittate or falsely petiolate at the base.
Pedicelled spikelet as large as the sessile spikelet or much smaller, often asymmetrical.
Caryopsis oblong to lanceolate, dorsally compressed.
Perennials, sometimes annuals, often decumbent.
