Plants annual. Culms (5)10-55(70) cm, erect, glabrous; nodes 3-6. Leaves evenly distributed; sheaths open, usually glabrous; auricles 0.1-0.5 mm, rarely absent; ligules membranous, truncate; blades flat to involute. Inflorescences spikes, erect; nodes 4-24(28), each with 2(3, 4) spikelets; internodes 0.5-3.5 mm. Spikelets with 2(3) florets, the lowest floret in each spikelet bisexual, the distal floret(s) highly reduced, sterile; disarticulation above the glumes. Glumes 5-80 mm, equal, awnlike, erect to spreading or reflexed, bases connate. Bisexual florets: lemmas 5-veined, glabrous or scabrous, margins flat, scabrous, apices terminally awned, awns 20-110 mm, longer than the lemmas, divergent, often cernuous; paleas as long as the lemmas, keels antrorsely ciliate, apices truncate; lodicules 2, lobed, ciliate. Reduced florets: lemmas 3-veined, awned; paleas absent; anthers 3, yellow to purple. Caryopses narrowly elliptic, with an adaxial groove, apices pubescent. x = 7. Haplome Ta. Name from the Greek taenia, 'ribbon', and ather, 'awn'.