Tufted or rhizomatous perennials, rarely annual. Leaf-blades flat and thin or stiff and convolute. Inflorescence a raceme, the pedicels 1-3 mm long. Spikelets 6-22-flowered; glumes 3-7-nerved; lemmas usually awned, rarely apiculate; palea a little shorter than the lemma, ciliolate on the keels, truncate.