Microchloa

Perennial, rarely annual, tufted or mat-forming. Leaf blade longitudinally folded and setaceous, rarely expanded; ligule a narrow fringed membrane or a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence a solitary, terminal, slender, curved, 1-sided spike; rachis semicrescent in section, hairy; spikelets solitary, sessile. Spikelet dark, dorsiventrally to not noticeably compressed, disarticulating above glumes; glumes +/- equal, +/- as long as spikelet or lower glume little shorter than spikelet, dissimilar, membranous, 1-nerved, awnless; lower glume lanceolate or linear-oblong, acute or obtuse, keeled, somewhat gibbous at base; upper glume lanceolate, acute, rounded on back. Floret 1, bisexual; lemma lanceolate or ovate, membranous to hyaline, 2-nerved, densely hairy on margins and midrib, awnless or mucronate; palea almost equalling or slightly shorter than lemma, hyaline, pilose. Lodicules 2, cuneate, glabrous, thin, faintly nerved. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles distinct, plumose. Caryopsis ellipsoid. x= 10 (polyploidy).