Nouv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 2: 189 (1810); (2009). Type: Hohenacker 363, Inde (type- G).
Cenchrus lappaceus Linn., Sp. Pl., ed. 2: 1488 (1763).
Centotheca latifolia Trin., Fund. Agrost. 14, fig1 (1820), nom. illig.
Regional literature:
FWTA: 381 (1972); Ghana grasses: 116, fig 17 (1977) ; Gram. Cameroun: 83, fig 17 (1992); Poac. CI:104, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 191 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 163 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 134 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 452 (2009).
Description:
* Annual bunchgrass of 0.3-0.9 m high. Culms often geniculate, occasionally with aerial roots from the lower nodes. Leaves lanceolate to linear-lanceolate and transverse waviness, glabrous with numerous fine nerves radiating from the base and distinct transverse veins between the main nerves, 10-20 cm long and 1.5-3 cm broad; margins scabrid; base well rounded and almost petiolate; ligule short, pale and translucent; sheath glabrous and finely nerved, sometimes with hairy margins.
* Inflorescence a spreading panicle of 15-30 cm long with often spreading branches of 10-20 cm long. Spikelets solitary, borne on hair-like pedicels of 5-12 mm long.
* Spikelets cylindrical to lanceolate, 4-8 mm long, awnless. Lower glume 2.5 mm long, upper glume 3.5 mm long, both with hyaline margins, mucronate. Lemmas emarginate, laterally compressed, 4.5 mm long, often with a short mucro of up to 0.2 mm. Lemmas of the upper florets 4.5 mm long, equipped with reflexed short bristles of 0.5-1.2 mm long that adhere to clothing or fur. Caryopse 1.5-1.6 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: Gabon, Congo, DRC, C Africa, Asia into Australia and the Pacific.