Perennial, usually aquatic herbs. Leaf-blades narrow, linear; ligule membranous; sheaths entire, their margins fused. Inflorescence a panicle. Spikelets few-many-flowered, all alike, bisexual, disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets at maturity; glumes unequal, persistent, 1-nerved, hyaline; lemmas obtuse, membranous, rounded on the back, prominently 5-11-nerved, hyaline at the tip; palea as long as or shorter than the lemma, 2-keeled, smooth or scaberulous on the keels; lodicules 2, minute; stamens 3; stigmas 2. Grain with small embryo and linear hilum; starch grains compound. Chromosomes small, basic number 5

A single genus in temperate regions of both hemispheres.

A tribe closely allied to Poeae, distinguished by the entire sheaths, smaller chromosomes and the distinctive parallel nerves of the lemma.

Lower Taxon

• Glyceria R. Br.