Tufted or stoloniferous perennials. Leaf-blades flat; ligule a very short ciliate. membrane. Inflorescence a single raceme embraced below by the subtending sheath, borne in the upper axils of the culm; racemes tough, dorsally compressed; internodes thickened, clavate, nearly always obliquely articulated, fused to the adjacent pedicel. Sessile spikelet dorsally compressed; lower glume narrowly elliptic, rigidly herbaceous, broadly convex, 2-keeled, smooth, indistinctly winged above, obtuse, caudate or bifid; upper lemma entire and awnless; caryopsis narrowly obovoid, slightly dorsally compressed. Pedicelled spikelet like the sessile; pedicel flattened, broadly linear.