Spikelets 2-several-flowered, the lower 1-3 florets fertile, the upper 2-3 sometimes reduced to a clavate mass of sterile lemmas or these scarcely distinguishable from the fertile; glumes ± unequal, firmly membranous or sometimes with broad hyaline margins, 3-5-nerved, rounded on the back, becoming hardened, 5-9(-13)-nerved, the nerves sometimes obscure, entire, awnless.