Tufted perennials without rhizomes. Culms often bulbous due to the accumulation of persistent basal sheaths, these often becoming fibrous or reticulate. Leaf-blades flat or folded, blunt at the tip. Inflorescence a spreading or rarely contracted panicle. Spikelets (1-)2-4-flowered, slightly laterally compressed, awnless; glumes persistent, subequal or unequal, much shorter than the lemmas, the lower scarcely half as long as the lowest lemma, firmly membranous with hyaline margins and tip, lightly keeled near the base, rounded above, the nerves falling short of the obtuse or subacute tip; lemmas ovate or oblong, thinly membranous, 3-5-nerved (the intermediate nerves obscure), slightly keeled below, glabrous or pubescent on the nerves and sometimes also between them, the nerves not reaching the obtuse tip; callus glabrous or slightly hairy; palea as long as the lemma; lodicules small, ± bilobed.