Slender, tufted perennials, sometimes stoloniferous, with culms decumbent and rooting at nodes, or rhizomatous. Leaf-sheath rounded. Ligule membranous. Leaf-blade linear, narrow, flat or inrolled. Culm erect or geniculate at base, occasionally with corm-like swellings at lower nodes. Panicle narrow, loose, elongated; rachis terete and smooth below, becoming angled and scabrid towards apex, branches erect, slender, often flexuous. Spikelets 3-10-flowered, ☿, or uppermost ♂, solitary at branchlet tips, pedicelled; disarticulation above glumes and between lemmas; rachilla prolonged. Glumes unequal to subequal, submembranous or hyaline, ± keeled; lower shorter, (1)-3-(5)-nerved, upper broader, 3-7-nerved. Lemma > glumes and firmer, rounded, 5-7-nerved, 2-4-toothed or -lobed, lobes aristate to obtuse; awn dorsal, ± geniculate, ± recurved, arising from near midpoint to just below lemma apex. Palea hyaline, 2-keeled, apex bifid. Callus prominent, hairy. Lodicules membranous, glabrous, spathulate to narrow-triangular, sometimes with a lateral lobe. Ovary glabrous, or slightly hairy at apex; styles free. Caryopsis terete; embryo small, to ⅓ length of caryopsis; hilum linear, to ½ length of caryopsis; endosperm solid. Chasmogamous or cleistogamous.