Spikelets lanceolate to ovate or ovate-elliptic or oblong, usually gaping, mostly paired, unequally pedicelled, continuous with or imperfectly jointed on the pedicels, subsecund or irregularly arranged on the slender branches of open or contracted panicles; rhachilla glabrous, readily disarticulating between the florets, and very slowly disarticulating or continuous between the upper glume and lower floret, not produced beyond the upper floret. Florets 2, heteromorphous; lower ♂ or barren, very rarely hermaphrodite; upper hermaphrodite, smaller than the lower. Glumes persistent, narrowly lanceolate to ovate or ovate-elliptic, acute or acuminate, membranous to chartaceous, 3–5-nerved; lower smaller, mostly half to three-fourths the length of the spikelet; upper as long as the spikelet. Lower floret subpersistent; valve ovate-oblong to oblong, obtuse or acute, subequal to the lower glume, thin, 3–7-nerved; valvule narrow, 2-keeled, from one-third the length of to as long as the spikelet. Upper floret narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, subterete or dorsally compressed, with a very short obtuse or truncate bearded or glabrous basal callus: valve membranous, at length thinly coriaceous, finely 1–7-nerved, scabrid or scaberulous, entire, emarginate or minutely 2-lobed at the apex, with the lobes muticous or each bearing a capillary bristle, awned from the tip or the sinus of the two lobes, or awnless; awn straight or curved, or geniculate and twisted below the bend; valvule narrow, 2-keeled, with the flaps more or less auricled. Lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles distinct; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain oblong or ellipsoid, slightly dorsally compressed, tightly embraced by the valve and valvule; hilum punctiform; scutellum half or more the length of the grain. —Perennials or annuals; culms simple or branched; leaf-blades linear to lanceolate, usually flat; ligules very short, truncate; panicles usually rather stiff; spikelets 3/4–4 lin. long, green, greyish, straw-coloured or purplish.