Perennial. Leaf blades usually rolled; ligule short, erose, ciliolate. Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle; pedicels short. Spikelets with 1 floret, bisexual, slightly dorsally compressed; rachilla extension absent; glumes subequal or slightly unequal, lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, herbaceous, scabrid or smooth, 3–5-veined, apex acuminate; callus short, obtuse, bearded; lemma slightly shorter than glumes, lanceolate, covering only flanks of palea, membranous, 3–5-veined, villous, apex 2-lobed, lobes acuminate to setiform, awned from between lobes; awn persistent, scabrid, weakly 1-geniculate, column loosely twisted, sometimes only slightly so; palea hyaline, back exposed, pubescent between veins. Lodicules 2 or 3, lanceolate. Stamens 3, anthers glabrous at apex. Stigmas 2.

Four species: N Pakistan to Bhutan and W China, at high altitudes; three species (one endemic) in China.