Perennials. Inflorescence a single raceme, sometimes solitary but more commonly aggregated into a spatheate false panicle. Racemes cylindric or flattened, spikelets paired or in triplets of 2 sessile and one pedicellate; internodes clavate, transversely articulated.  Sessile spikelet: callus truncate with a central peg; lower glume conspicuously winged toward the apex, 2-keeled in the lower half; upper glume awnless; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma entire and awnless.  Pedicellate spikelet well-developed and male or vestigial, awnless; pedicel clavate or foliaceous, sometimes auriculate at the top.