Tufted perennials, rarely annuals. Leaf-blades linear; ligule short, membranous, densely ciliate. Inflorescence composed of 1-20 subdigitate racemes, terminal on the culm, the common axis (if present) short in relation to the long slender racemes; racemes conspicuously hairy, bearing paired similar spikelets; internodes and pedicels linear. Spikelets dorsally compressed, the callus obtuse; lower glume firmly cartilaginous to subcoriaceous, flat across the back with the margins sharply inflexed, sometimes 2-keeled towards the tip, usually without inter-carinal nerves, often obtuse or truncate, rarely bibbed or 2-awned; upper glume usually awnless; lower floret reduced to a cartilaginous or hyaline lemma, sometimes suppressed; upper lemma hyaline, linear to cordate, bidentate or deeply bifid, with a glabrous (rarely puberulous) awn from the sinus, pales small or absent; stamens 3; caryopsis oblong.