Glaucous perennials with rigid solid culms. Leaf-blades short, linear to narrowly ovate, often rolled; chlorenchyma radiate. Inflorescence a contracted panicle. Spikelets 2-6-flowered (the uppermost floret usually reduced to a small scale), lanceolate, enclosed by the glumes; glumes chartaceous, acute, separated by an internode 0.5-1 mm long, the lower 7-11-nerved, the upper 5-9-nerved; lemma rounded on the back, membranous becoming coriaceous, 7-11-nerved, densely pubescent between the nerves and with a transverse row of 6-8 tufts of hairs on a level with the base of the awn, deeply divided into 2 lanceolate, hyaline, glabrous lobes, awned from between the lobes; awn straight or geniculate (and then with a loosely twisted column); palea shorter than the lemma; callus 1-1.8 mm long, obliquely pungent.