Description: Tufted erect perennials; culms erect, sometimes hairy below the inflorescence.
Leaves with ligule membranous; blade flat or inrolled, narrow.
Inflorescence spicate or a contracted panicle, erect, usually dense.
Spikelets laterally compressed, shortly pedicellate, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the lemmas; florets 2–4. Glumes unequal, lower glume narrow, 1-nerved; upper glume broader, 3–5-nerved, acute or acuminate. Lemma acute, keeled, firm, sometimes very short-awned from apex. Palea subequal to lemma, 2-keeled, 2-toothed.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 60 species, Europe& Mediterranean region. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & K. L. McClay
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Koeleria macrantha |
|
