Plants annual or perennial. Culms 15-120 cm. Sheaths open; auricles absent; ligules membranous; blades flat. Inflorescences solitary, distichous spikes; disarticulation in the rachis, immediately above the spikelets. Spikelets 6-20 mm, laterally compressed, sessile, tangential and more or less appressed to the rachis, with 3-11 florets; rachillas glabrous, prolonged beyond the distal fertile floret, terminating in a reduced floret. Glumes unequal, from shorter than to about as long as the spikelets; calluses blunt, glabrous; lower glumes 3(5)-veined; upper glumes 5-7(11)-veined; lemmas coriaceous, obscurely 7-9-veined, unawned or awned near the apices; paleas shorter than the lemmas; lodicules 2, free, membranous, glabrous, toothed; anthers 3; ovaries pubescent. Caryopses with a terminal tuft of hairs; hila round. x = 7. Named for Jean François Aimé Philippe Gaudin (1766-1833), a Swiss clergyman and botanist.