Annuals or perennials, tufted or sometimes with creeping rhizomes or stolons. Leaf blades flat or rolled, linear to narrowly lanceolate; ligule a line of hairs. Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle, rarely spikelike. Spikelets with 1 floret, subterete, not compressed or keeled, glabrous; rachilla disarticulating above glumes; glumes usually shorter than lemma, unequal, membranous, deciduous or persistent, 1-veined or veinless, apex obtuse, acute or acuminate; lemma elliptic to narrowly ovate, thinly membranous, 1–3-veined, glabrous, rounded on back, awnless; palea equaling or shorter than lemma, depressed between veins and often splitting lengthways as grain grows. Stamens 2–3. Grain globose to ellipsoid, rounded or truncate, pericarp free, commonly swelling when wet and expelling the grain, which often adheres to spikelet apex. x = 9, 12.

Most species of this genus in China are fodder plants. The culms are used for weaving.

A specimen (H. Y. Liang 64044, US) collected from sandy soil near the seashore of Hainan appears to be Sporobolus gloeoclados Cope (Kew Bull. 47: 656. 1992), from SW Asia, and is presumably an introduction.

About 160 species: tropics and subtropics, extending into warm-temperate regions; eight species (one introduced) in China.

(Authors: Wu Zhenlan (吴珍兰); Sylvia M. Phillips)