Perennials, stout. Culms tall, reedlike, solid. Leaf blades cauline, linear, flat, finally deciduous from sheaths; ligule a line of long hairs. Inflorescence a large plumose panicle, primary branches in clusters or solitary on central axis. Spikelets laterally compressed, florets several, all bisexual or lowest sterile and without a palea; rachilla glabrous, disarticulating above glumes and sterile floret (when present) and between fertile florets; glumes lanceolate, shorter than lemmas, subequal or unequal, scarious-membranous, 1–3-veined, obtuse to acuminate or aristulate; lemmas ovate-lanceolate, scarious-membranous, 3-veined, long-ciliate on lateral veins, keeled, apex setaceously bidentate with a short, often recurved awn from the sinus; palea shorter than lemma, hyaline, keels very shortly ciliate. Callus oblong, bearded. Caryopsis narrow, subterete.

Although Neyraudia has slender, arundinoid microhairs, its other features, including the embryo, are typically eragrostoid.

Five species: Old World tropics; four species (two endemic) in China.

(Authors: Chen Shouliang (陈守良); Sylvia M. Phillips)