Plants usually perennial, occasionally annual in desert areas; cespitose and shortly rhizomatous. Culms 5-120 cm, unbranched. Leaves mostly basal; ligules of hairs; blades 2-5 mm wide. Inflorescences terminal, exceeding the upper leaves, dense, cylindrical to ovoid panicles, occasionally reduced to racemes; branches short, non-disarticulating; rachises concealed by the spikelets; disarticulation beneath the glumes. Spikelets laterally compressed, with 2-4 florets, only the basal florets bisexual, the next 2 florets usually staminate, the fourth floret, if present, sterile. Glumes subequal, clearly exceeding the florets, awned or unawned; lemmas firmly membranous, 3-veined basally, 5-7-veined distally, mucronate to shortly awned, awns shorter than 10 mm; anthers 3; ovaries glabrous. x = 10. Named for Carl Anton Fingerhuth (1798-1876), a German botanist and physician.