Rhizomatous perennials. Culms often becoming fibrous at the base. Leaf-blades flat or folded, blunt at the tip. Inflorescence a spreading panicle. Spikelets 2-4(-5)-flowered, slightly laterally compressed, awnless; glumes persistent, unequal or subequal, almost as long as the lowest lemma (or the lower glume at least half as long), firmly membranous with hyaline margins and tip, lightly keeled near the base, rounded above, the nerves falling short of the obtuse, sometimes toothed tip; lemmas elliptic-oblong, thinly membranous, 3-5-nerved, keeled below, hairy on the nerves. the latter not reaching the obtuse, broadly scarious tip; callus hairy; palea as long as the lemma or a little longer; lodicules large, irregularly toothed.