Perennial herbs. Leaf-blades usually convolute, stiff, pungent; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence loosely spicate or the spikelets collected into dense heads. Spikelets all alike, bisexual, laterally compressed, 6-many-flowered; rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets, produced beyond the uppermost floret; glumes membranous, unequal, the lower 1-3-nerved, the upper much larger, 5-7-nerved; lemmas longer than the glumes, membranous, 9-11-nerved, apiculate; palea hyaline; starch grains compound. Chromosomes small, basic number 10.

A single genus in Southwest and Central Asia extending into the Mediterranean region.

A small tribe separated from Eragrostideae only by the multi-nerved lemmas.

Lower Taxon

• Aeluropus Trin.