Plants perennial (rarely annual); erect and cespitose, or decumbent and mat-forming. Culms 5-60 cm; nodes glabrous. Leaves mostly basal; ligules membranous and ciliate or of hairs; blades often stiff, convolute. Inflorescences terminal, panicles with a solitary (rarely 2), slender, spikelike branch; rachises curved or falcate, semi-circular or crescentic in cross section. Spikelets solitary, with 1(2) florets, terete to dorsally compressed; florets bisexual; disarticulation above the glumes. Glumes subequal, exceeding the florets, 1-veined; lower glumes asymmetric, keeled, keels somewhat twisted; upper glumes symmetric, flat, midveins straight; lemmas membranous or hyaline, 3-veined, veins hairy; paleas with 2 pubescent keels. Caryopses 0.9-1.5 mm, glabrous. x = 10, 12. Name from the Greek, micros, small, and chloë, grass.