Perennial and caespitose. Leaf-sheath split. Auricles falcate, clasping, hairy or glabrous. Ligule shortly truncate. Leaf-blade flat with many ribs. Culm unbranched, nodes glabrous. Inflorescence an open panicle of many-flowered laterally-compressed spikelets, disarticulation above glumes and between florets. Lemma lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, rounded, variously prickle-toothed; awn from between membranous apical lobes, or awnless. Rachilla prolonged. Stamens 3; anthers caudate. Ovary apex glabrous; styles subterminal. Caryopsis adherent to palea.