Annual or short-lived perennial without rhizomes; culms 0.3-4 m high often robust, the nodes glabrous or pubescent. Leaf-blades variable, often large, 5-75 cm long, 5-70 mm wide. Panicle linear to broadly spreading, 10-60 cm long; primary branches compound, ultimately bearing racemes of 2-7 spikelet pairs. Sessile spikelet lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 4-9 mm long, glabrescent to white pubescent, sometimes tomentose or fulvously pubescent, awnless or more often with an awn 5-30 mm long. Pedicelled spikelet linear to lanceolate, male or barren, smaller than the sessile. 2n=20.