Perennials, less often annuals or suffruticose. Culms tufted. Leaf blades usually basal, rolled or rarely flat. Inflorescence a narrow or open panicle. Spikelets with 1 floret; glumes scarious, narrow, unequal with the upper usually longer, 1(–3)-veined; floret callus bearded, obtuse to pungent or 2-toothed; lemma narrowly cylindrical or laterally compressed, convolute, glabrous or sparsely hairy; awn 3-branched, branches arising directly from lemma apex or seated on a straight or twisted column, persistent or disarticulating either at base or apex of column (always persistent in China), scabrid. Stamens 3.

This genus is found on poor, dry soils in areas of low rainfall, but does not usually penetrate into true desert.

About 300 species: widely distributed in tropical and warm-temperate regions of the world; ten species (six endemic) in China.

(Authors: Lu Shenglian (卢生莲), Chen Shouliang (陈守良); Sylvia M. Phillips)