Annuals or perennials. Culms erect or decumbent. Leaf blades convolute, linear or lanceolate. Inflorescence composed of slender racemes, these digitate or in whorls on a short common axis, each raceme with a weakly unilateral, narrowly triquetrous rachis, spikelets in pairs or clusters. Spikelets ovate to elliptic, dorsally compressed, florets 2; glumes unequal, acute to briefly awned; lower glume 1/2 spikelet length, membranous, 3-veined; upper glume as long as spikelet, herbaceous, 5–7-veined, ciliate along margins; lower floret staminate, lemma herbaceous, glabrous; lower palea much shorter than the anthers, bifid; upper lemma cartilaginous, margins inrolled, shortly awned; upper palea acute, the flaps basally auriculate. Caryopsis ellipsoid. x = 9.

Alloteropsis is best distinguished from other panicoid genera by its awned spikelets and ciliate upper glume.

Five species: tropical and S Africa, India, SE Asia, Australia; two species in China.

(Authors: Chen Shouliang (陈守良); Sylvia M. Phillips)