Brachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) Robyns

Bull. Jard. Bot. Brux. 9: 181 (1932); FWTA: 444 (1972) ; RI: 107, fig. 14 (1977); FTEA: 598 (1982); Zon: 272 (1992); Fl. Bénin: 187 (2006); Poicelot: 398, fig. (1995)

Panicum deflexum Schumach., Beskr. Guin. Pl. 63 (1827); Panicum regulare Nees TYPE: Thonning Guinea, holo

* Erect or straggling, branched annual bunchgrass up to 0.8 m. Leaves linear lanceolate, flat, 8 - 16 cm long and  8 – 14 mm broad and finely hairy with a fine midrib, scabrid margins; base rounded and almost clasping the culm; ligule a short fringe rim of white hairs, up to 1 mm; sheath glabrous to finely hairy.

* Inflorescence fairly large and open, resembling a panicle with racemes along the central axis of 10 – 20 cm long. Racemes 2 - 8 cm long; rachis triquetrous, with delicate, spreading paired spikelets from the base, distantly-spaced ( - 10 mm) and unequally pedicelled (5 – 12 mm); pedicelles with ling hairs.

* Spikelets 2.5 - 4 mm, acuminate, short-hairy. Lower glume 1/3 of length spikelet; upper glume as long as spikelet, 7 -veined. Lower lemma resembles the upper glume; upper lemma ovate, rugose, glossy white to brown, 2 – 3 mm long.

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