Plants perennial; dioecious, staminate and pistillate plants similar; stoloniferous. Culms 10-70 cm. Leaves mostly cauline; ligules membranous, ciliate. Inflorescences terminal panicles, exceeding the upper leaves; branches appressed or ascending, usually spikelet-bearing to the base. Spikelets not disarticulating. Pistillate spikelets with 5-10 florets; lower glumes 1-5-veined, only the midveins conspicuous; upper glumes with 3 conspicuous veins, sometimes with 2-4 inconspicuous lateral veins; lemmas 3-5(6)-veined, unawned; paleas shorter than the lemmas, completely surrounding the ovaries, saccate basally, narrowing distally and surrounding the styles, intercostal region coriaceous, veins keeled, scabrous and puberulent, margins scarious. Staminate spikelets with 4-21 florets; lower glumes 1-veined; upper glumes 1-3-veined; lemmas conspicuously 3-veined, unawned; paleas equaling or slightly longer than the lemmas, linear, 2-veined, veins ciliolate. Lodicules 2, cuneate. x = 10. Name from the Greek allo, different, and lepis, scale or lemma, referring to the differing lemmas of the sexes.

Allolepis is a monotypic North American genus. It used to be included in Distichlis, but it differs in its paleal morphology, in never producing rhizomes, and in its soil preferences.

1.   Allolepis texana (Vasey) Soderstr. & H.F. Decker
False Saltgrass

Culms (10) 25-70 cm, ascending, glabrous; stolons to 15 m long, 1-4 mm thick, strongly ribbed. Sheaths mostly glabrous, the apices with a tuft of hairs; lower sheaths shorter than the internodes; ligules 0.5-1.4 mm; blades (6)10-43 cm long, (2.5)4-6 mm wide, usually flat, glabrous, scabridulous near the apices, margins scabrous. Panicles (3)10-23 cm; branches 3-6 cm. Pistillate spikelets 10-30 mm. Glumes subcoriaceous, glabrous, midveins scabridulous; lower glumes 5.5-9 mm; upper glumes 6.8-10.3 mm; lower lemmas 6.5-10.5 mm, broadly ovate, coriaceous, glabrous, midveins scabrous distally, margins clasping the bases of the florets above. Staminate spikelets 9-25 mm long, 3-8 mm wide; lower glumes 3.5-5 mm, glabrous except for the scabrous midvein; upper glumes 4.5-6 mm, glabrous; lowest lemma 5-6.3 mm, glabrous; anthers 3, 3-3.7 mm, yellow. 2n = 40.

Allolepis texana grows in the Big Bend region of Texas and northern Mexico. It is not common, but it may be locally abundant, growing on sandy or silty, but not alkaline, soils.