Erect perennial herbs. Leaf-blades linear, flat; ligule membranous or absent; leaf-sheath tubular. Inflorescence a panicle, often contracted or spiciform. Spikelets all alike, laterally compressed, (1-)2-many-flowered, the uppermost reduced and often contracted into a clavate appendage; rhachilla disarticulating below each floret, the internodes long; glumes persistent, equal or unequal, usually shorter than the spikelet, sometimes shorter than the lowest lemma, herbaceous to membranous, often with hyaline margins; lemmas herbaceous to membranous with hyaline margins, often thin and shining, 5-9-nerved, entire or 2-toothed, awnless or awned from just below the tip; palea hyaline, almost as long as the lemma; lodicules 2, fleshy, truncate; stamens 3; stigmas 2. Grain with small embryo and linear hilum; starch grains compound. Chromosomes large, basic number 9.

Genera ± 5; mainly in temperate regions of both hemispheres; 1 genus and 5 species in Pakistan.

A small tribe allied to Poeae, but differing in such features as the shape of the lodicules, the entire sheath and the basic chromosome number.

Lower Taxon

• Melica Linn.