Erect annuals. Leaf-blades flat; ligule a very short membrane. Inflorescence a single raceme, either terminal or aggregated into a spatheate false panicle; racemes cylindrical; internodes squatly clavate, fused to the adjacent pedicel. Sessile spikelet sunk in the internode; callus truncate with a prominent central peg; Lower glume coriaceous, broadly convex, 2-keeled, smooth, narrowly winged at the apex; lower floret male, with hyaline lemma and well-developed palea; upper lemma entire and awnless; caryopsis ovate in face view, crescentic in side view. Pedicelled spikelet herbaceous or scarious, a little smaller than the sessile; pedicel oblong, flattened, scarcely distinguishable from the internode.