Plants annual. Culms 10-40 cm tall [need to check for all species, not just NA), erect, ascending, or geniculate at the base, with (1)2-4(5) nodes, branching only at the base. Leaves: sheaths open; auricles well-developed on basal leaves, ciliate; ligules 0.2-0.8 mm long, membranous, truncate; blades 1.5-10 mm wide, linear to linear-lanceolate, flat, divergent. Inflorescence terminal, spikelike, with 3-16 nodes, nodes with 1 spikelet each, the basal 1-3 nodes usually with rudimentary spikelets; disarticulation either at the base of the spikes or in the rachis, the spikelets falling attached to the internode above or below. Spikelets solitary at each node, 1/2-2(3) times the length of the internodes, tangential to the rachis, appressed or ascending, upper spikelet(s) sometimes sterile; fertile spikelets 5-15 mm, with 2-7 florets, scabrous or pubescent, distal florets often sterile. Glumes ovate to rectangular, sometimes indurate at maturity, rounded on the back, with several prominent veins, midveins smooth throughout, tip truncate, denticulate, or awned; lemmas of fertile spiekelets rounded on the back, tip toothed, frequently with 1 or 3 awns or mucros; palea chartaceous, 2-keeled, keels ciliate; anthers 3, 1.5-4 mm long, not penicillate; ovary with pubescent top. Caryopses lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate. Cytology Chromosome base number: 7. The name is derived from from the Greek aigilops, a word which has multiple etymological interpretations [see Slageren 1994, pp. 19-20 and 118-119], many of which consider it to be based on the Greek aigos, goat.