Plants perennial; cespitose or loosely colonial, rhizomatous. Culms 35-150 cm, simple or branched. Leaves cauline; ligules membranous, ciliate; blades not pseudopetiolate, flat. Panicles open or contracted, sometimes becoming racemose distally; disarticulation above the glumes and between the florets. Spikelets 4-50 mm, laterally compressed, with 2-many florets, lower 1-4 florets sterile. Glumes 2, subequal, shorter than the spikelets, glabrous, (2)3-9-veined, acute to acuminate; lemmas glabrous, 3-15-veined, compressed-keeled, keels serrate or ciliate, apices acuminate to acute, entire (rarely bifid); paleas glabrous, gibbous basally, 2-keeled, keels winged, wings glabrous, scabrous, or pilose; lodicules 2, fleshy, cuneate, 2-4-veined, lobed-truncate; anthers 1; ovaries glabrous; styles 2; style branches 2, plumose, reddish-purple at anthesis. Caryopses 1.9-5 mm, laterally compressed, brown to reddish-black or black. x = 12. Name from the Greek chasma, yawn, and anthos, flower, presumably for the gaping glumes that expose the grain at maturity.
Chasmanthium, a genus of five species endemic to North America, grows primarily in the southeastern and south central parts of the United States. It was formerly included in Uniola, but it is now recognized as a distinct genus.