Shrub or small tree. Culms woody. Inflorescence of dense spherical clusters of spikelets, at the tips of leafy branchlets, the clusters sometimes confluent. Spikelets subtended by several short papery bracts, 1-2-flowered, 1(-2) upper florets bisexual, the lower barren; glumes round on the back, 17-30-nerved, 2-4 persistent plus 1-2 deciduous with fl; lemmas 26-32-nerved, the tip pungent. Stamens 6. Fruit a caryopsis.