Plants annual, loosely tufted. Culms erect, unbranched. Leaves:ligules about 1 mm long; auricles falcate, ciliate. Inflorescences spikes, disarticulating initially into groups of spikelets, eventually into individual spikelets, disarticulation wedge type. Spikelets all alike. oblong-cylindrical, sessile, alternate, laterally compressed, appressed to the rachis internode. Glumes rounded on the back, cuneate. truncate, without teeth or awns; lemmas rounded to emarginate, without teeth or awns; paleas with smooth keels and rounded to emarginate tips.
Ambryopyrum includes only one species. Its range extends from western Turkey to western Armenia.