Sp. Pl. 82 (1753).- Type: Osbeck in Herb. Linn. 98-1, Ascension I (holo- LINN)
Aristida caerulescens Desf., Fl. Atlantica 1: 109 (1798);
Aristida guineensis Trin. &Rupr., Sp.Gram.Stip.: 137 (1842);
Aristida submucronata Schumach.& Thonn., in Schumach., Beskr. Guin. Pl. 47 (1847);
Aristida adscensionis Linné var. aethiopica (Trin. & Rupr.) Dur. & Schinz., Consp. Fl. Afr. 5: 799 (1895).- Type: Kotschy 226, 248, Sudan (K- iso);
Aristida cardosoi Cout., Herb. Gorg. Cat. 1: 273 (1914);
Aristida adscensionis Linné ssp. guineensis (Trin. & Rupr.) Henr., Med. Rijks Herb. Leiden 54: 216(1926).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 148 (1970); FWTA: 378, fig 472 (1972); Ghana grasses: 100, fig 6 (1977); Fl. Sahara: 166 (1977); Gram. Togo: 152, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 94, fig 20 (1992); Poac. CI: 98, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7:78, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 279 (1998); Fl. Bénin: 183 (2006); Poaceae Niger: 157, fig. (1999); Pl. Burkina Faso: 70 (2012) ; Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 119 (2015)
Description:
* Annual or short-living perennial, straggling, well-branched bunchgrass of 0.1-1 m tall. Culms slender, erect or geniculate, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes, up to 1 mm wide; nodes glabrous, reddish on the nodes. Leaves scanty, narrow linear, up to 20 cm long and 1-3 mm wide, with fine filiform tip, mostly rolled, glabrous with a fine midrib; ligule barely visible fringe of hairs; sheath glaucous.
* Inflorescence an open green to purplish panicle of 15-30 cm long, sometimes dense. Spikelets solitary and pedicelled, usually at the primary branches of 1-8 cm long.
* Spikelets light green or purplish, 7-12 mm long; callus obtuse, 0.5-1 mm long, barbed with hairs up to 1.5 mm. Glumes, lower glume 4-7 mm, upper glume 7-10 mm long. Lemma 8-12 mm, laterally compressed, dark at the base, scabrid on the median nerve, with 3 distinct and equal fine short persistent awn-branches rising from the apex without an articulation, dark red-brown at maturity the longest 7-30 mm, other two 5-24 mm.