Centotheceae is a small tribe of grasses with six species in two genera, distributed in Africa and Asia. It belongs to a group within the subfamily Panicoideae, sometimes referred to as "centothecoid clade", which consists of the tribes Thysanolaeneae, Cyperochloeae, Centotheceae, Chasmanthieae, Zeugiteae, Tristachyidae, and Steyermarkochloeae; this clade is sister to the remaining groups within Panicoideae. Unlike many other clades in the subfamily Panicoideae, they use the C<sub>3</sub> photosynthetic pathway.