Plants perennial; synoecious; rhizomatous, occasionally also stoloniferous. Culms 2-80 cm, hard, persistent, branched above the base. Ligules membranous, ciliate, cilia as long as or longer than the basal membrane; blades linear-lanceolate, becoming rolled, hard, and sharp-pointed. Inflorescences terminal, exceeding the upper leaves, panicles of racemosely arranged, spikelike primary branches; primary branches woody, not disarticulating, apices hard, sharp; secondary branches shorter than 1 cm, otherwise similar to the primary branches, sometimes clustered. Spikelets 7-16 mm, laterally compressed, with 3-16(20) florets; florets bisexual; disarticulation above the glumes and beneath the florets. Glumes more or less equal, markedly exceeded by the florets; lemmas 3-veined, unawned; lodicules 2; anthers 3. Caryopses glabrous. x = unknown. Name from the Greek klados, branch, twig, or stem, and rhaphis, needle, alluding to the sharp-pointed inflorescence branches.