Perennials.Ligule membranous; leaf laminas flat or folded.Inflorescence a solitary raceme; raceme ± dorsally flattened, tardily disarticulating, stout; internodes narrowly oblong to clavate, pubescent to pilose, the summit crateriform with a lobed scarious rim.Sessile spikelet narrowly ovate to narrowly oblong; callus oblique, broadly obtuse, conspicuously barbate, inserted into the summit of the internode, the hairs exserted to form a ring around each node; inferior glume coriaceous, broadly convex, the margins sharply inflexed and becoming keeled towards the apex, usually with the nerves raised into longitudinal ridges running the whole length of the glume, sometimes muricate on the sides, entire at the apex; superior glume awnless; inferior floret male; superior lemma entire and awnless.Caryopsis ellipsoid.Pedicelled spikelet about as long as the sessile spikelet or much reduced, awnless or rarely awned from the inferior glume.