Alloteropsis

Annual or perennial, tufted or decumbent. Leaf blade expanded or +/- convolute, linear to lanceolate, glabrous or hairy with tubercle-based hairs; ligule a fringed membrane or a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence of spike-like, 1-sided racemes, digitate or subdigitate, usually on a short central axis; spikelets 2- or 3-nate, rarely solitary or in clusters, unequally pedicelled. Spikelet falling with glumes, ovate to elliptic, dorsiventrally compressed; glumes unequal; lower glume shorter than spikelet, membranous, acute to acuminate, pubescent, 3-5-nerved, usually awnless; upper glume equalling lemma, elliptic, sometimes with broad auricled flaps, membranous to chartaceous, 5-nerved, hairy on margins. Florets 2; lower floret male or sterile, lemma resembling upper glume but not hairy, indurated, 3-5-nerved; palea shorter than lemma, deeply 2-lobed with marginal flaps, awnless; upper floret bisexual, lemma similar in texture to glumes, membranous to chartaceous, margins flat and exposed on palea, covering most of palea, 5-nerved, long attenuate into an awn or mucro, awn straight; palea as long as lemma, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles plumose above. Caryopsis ellipsoid to oblong. x= 9 (polyploidy).