Home
Annuals or perennials, stoloniferous and caespitose, bisexual. Ligule a ciliate membrane (in Australia). Inflorescence a single spike (almost cylindrical), of distichous spikelets disarticulating at the joints. Spikelets solitary, partially embedded in the rachis, sessile, dorsally compressed, with 1–2 bisexual florets, falling with the glumes; rachilla prolonged, terminating at a vestigial floret or barren. Glumes 1 or rarely 2, very dissimilar; lower glume absent or obscure in Australian species, reduced to a minute triangular scale, 1-nerved; upper glume sometimes tapered to an awn, exceeding and enclosing the florets, thickened, 5–12-nerved, smooth, scabrous or scaberulous or pubescent. Lemmas awnless, rounded on the back, 3-nerved, with apex ciliate (in Australia). Lodicules fleshy. Stigmas red. Grain: hilum short; pericarp free; embryo large.
Stoloniferous or caespitose perennials. Leaf-blades linear to narrowly lanceolate. Spike cylindrical, disarticulating transversely or obliquely at the nodes when mature. Spikelets subulate, lanceolate, or oblong; lower glume adaxial, usually suppressed (but similar to upper in terminal spikelet); upper glume 5–12-nerved, cartilaginous, thick and indurated, truncate, acute, or tapering into a straight awn; lemma boat-shaped, membranous to scarious. Grain oblong-ellipsoid, dorsally flattened, with a free pericarp.
Description as for tribe.
