Perennials. Leaf-blades flat or convolute, broad or narrow. Spikelets 2-4 (-6)-flowered, all alike, the rhachilla usually produced; glumes ± unequal, keeled, broadly hyaline on the margins, the lower 1(-3)-nerved, the upper 3-nerved; lemmas slightly longer or shorter than the glumes, 5-nerved, hyaline or membranous, 2-toothed at the tip, the teeth often aristulate, with a straight or curved, often twisted awn nearly always inserted above the middle; callus distinct, bearded; stamens 3; stigmas 2.