Tall, robust, perennial reeds, with stout creeping rhizomes, stout, hollow culms, wide flat cauline leaves, and large panicles. Ligule membranous, ciliate. Leaf-blade linear, long-tapering. Culm erect, sometimes almost woody. Inflorescence a terminal, dense, plume-like panicle, with fascicled lower branches. Spikelets 2-4-flowered, laterally compressed, all florets ☿; disarticulation above glumes and between florets; rachilla prolonged. Glumes 3-5-nerved, persistent, ± equal. Lemma 3-7-nerved, covered with long, soft hairs from below, usually bidentate, with central awn from the sinus. Palea < lemma, keels densely ciliate. Lodicules 2, glabrous, irregularly toothed. Stamens 3. Fig. 15.