Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 209 (1854).- Type: Leprieur 50, Senegal (lecto- P).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 397 (1972); Ghana grasses: 176, fig. 53 (1977); Gram. Togo: 243, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 106, fig. 23 (1992); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 102, fig. (1995); Poac. CI: 156, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 287 (1998); Poac. Niger: 246, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 28 (1999); Fl. Bénin: 214 (2006) ; Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 169 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 138 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 464 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 94 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 136 (2015).
Description:
* Sparingly branched rhizomatous annual. Culms straggling and decumbent, stolon-like rooting at the lower nodes or sometimes erect. 0.5-1 m high. 10-20 noded. Leaves glaucous green, narrowly linear, long-attenuate, flat or rolling on drying, glabrous with a distinct white midrib, 6-10 cm long and 2-4 mm broad, with sharply scabrid margins; base slightly narrowed and passing directly into the sheath, 2-8 mm broad; ligule a truncate membrane; sheath long, glabrous.
* Inflorescence long and narrow panicle of 12-30 cm long, with long slender purplish racemes on a central axis. Racemes 4-8 cm long, each bearing two rows of imbricate spikelets attached to one side of the wiry rhachis.
* Spikelet 2.5-3 mm long, 3-6 flowered. Lower glume narrowly lanceolate, 0.7-1 mm long; upper glume narrowly oblong, 1.2-1.7 mm long, obtuse or emarginate, mucronate. Lemmas 1.5-2 mm long, obscurely ciliolate on the nerves. Achene elliptical, 0.6 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, DRC, Congo and Zambia and Angola.