Small to very tall, often tufted or reed-like perennials, rarely annuals. Spike-lets borne in a panicle, rarely a spike or reduced to a single spikelet, 1-several flowered, the florets all bisexual or reduced above or below the bisexual florets, disarticulating above the persistent or deciduous glumes; lemmas nerveless or 1-many-nerved, entire, bilobed or 3-lobed, awnless or awned from the sinus; stamens 3 (up to 6 in Ehrharteae).

Leaf anatomy: vascular bundles circular or oval in section, rarely rhombic, bundle-sheath double; chlorenchyma cells usually diffusely arranged and extensive, or ± confined to the immediate region around the vascular bundles but the radiate arrangement characteristic of Panicoideae and Chloridoideae is not fully developed; 2-celled micro hairs slender or stout, or absent.

Embryo: scutellum cleft and internode in the vascular trace present, but epiblast absent; first leaf rolled.

Lower Taxa

• Poaceae Tribe Arundineae
• Poaceae Tribe Lygeae
• POACEAE Tribe THYSANOLAENEAE