Plants annual or perennial; cespitose, sometimes rhizomatous. Culms to 10(25) cm. Sheaths open, mostly glabrous, lower sheaths shorter than the upper sheaths; ligules 2-6 mm, membranous; auricles absent. Inflorescences contracted panicles. Spikelets 2.5-5 mm, laterally compressed, with 2(3) florets, all florets bisexual or some florets bisexual and others pistillate; disarticulation above the glumes and beneath the florets. Glumes equal or subequal, usually exceeding all the florets, sometimes subequal to them, ovate or lanceolate, margins scarious; lower glumes 1-veined; upper glumes 3-veined; calluses poorly developed, glabrous; lemmas oval or elliptic, 3-veined, lateral veins near the margins, apices acute or obtuse, sometimes denticulate, unawned; paleas slightly shorter than the lemmas; lodicules 2; anthers 3. x = unknown. Name from the Greek dissos, double, and anthelion, a small flower, an allusion to the two small florets.