Plants annual or perennial; synoecious; tufted, cespitose, or sprawling. Culms 2-30 cm. Sheaths open; ligules membranous; blades flat. Inflorescences terminal, racemelike, 1-sided panicles, usually exceeding the upper leaves; branches 0.4-0.8 mm, not appressed to the rachis, with 3 spikelets, bases sharply curved, strigose, axes not extending beyond the distal spikelets; disarticulation at the base of the branches. Spikelets with 1 floret; lateral spikelets pedicellate, staminate or sterile, varying from rudimentary to as large as the central spikelet; central spikelets sessile or pedicellate, laterally compressed, bisexual. Glumes exceeded by the florets, cuneate, truncate to bilobed, 1-veined, awned from the midveins, sometimes also from the lateral lobes; lemmas 3-veined, central veins and sometimes the lateral veins extended into awns, central awns always the longest; paleas almost as long as the lemmas, 2-keeled, 2-awned; lodicules 2; anthers 3; styles 2. Caryopses about twice as large as the embryos; hila punctate. x = 10. Name from the Greek aix, goat, and pogon, beard, alluding to the fascicles of the awns of the spikelets.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MG-70-19-0057-19].