Ess. Agrost.: 162, 175 (1812).- Type: Triumfettus, Italy; Kneucker s.n., Italy (epi B).
Poa pilosa Linn., Sp. Pl. 68 (1753) ;
Eragrostis baguirmensis A.Chev., Rev. Int. Bot. Appl. Agric. Trop. 29: 135 t. 7B: 135 (1949).- Type: Chevalier 8849, CAR (syn P) ;
Eragrostis tenuiflora Rupr. ex Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1 : 268 (1854).- Type : Kostschy, 185, Sudan (iso- W);
Eragrostis pilosa ssp. neglecta H Scholz, Willdenowia 18: 218 (1988).- Type: Kappel s.n., Dar Kawahla, Sudan (holo- B).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 389 (1972); FTEA: (19740; Ghana grasses: 152 (1977) ; Fl. Sahara: 181 (1977); Gram. Togo: 217 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 454 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 132 (1992); Poac. CI: 130, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 125, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 284 (1998); Poac. Niger: 190, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 108 (1999); Fl. Bénin: 207 (2006); Fl. Guinée: 459 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 88 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 130 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual of 0.2-0.9 m high. Culms erect or ascendin,g branched with dark nodes. Leaves flat or rolled, 5-20 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, erect or obliquely spreading, narrow-linear, glabrous with smooth margins; base slightly hairy with a distinct whitened collar, passing straight into the sheath; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous, striated.
* Inflorescence a spreading panicle of 5-30 cm long; lowest branches whorled (except in small panicles), 3-4 cm long, usually with a few long white hairs in the axils and with small flattened spikelets borne on fine branches and hair-like pedicels.
* Spikelets lanceolate, purplish green, 3-7 mm long and 0.8-1 mm wide, 4-14-flowered, disarticulating from the base, the paleas falling soon after the lemmas from the persistant rhachilla. Glumes unequal, lower glume a small, ovate, hyaline scale of 0.6 mm long; upper glume ovate, 1-1.5 mm long. Lemmas lanceolate oblong, sub acute or obtuse, 1.4-2 mm long, with a narrow hyaline rim, appressed to the rachilla and 2-2.5 times as long as internodes. Anthers 3, 0.2 mm long. Caryopsis more or less ellipsoid, 0.6-0.9 mm long, flattened on one side.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo, Eq. Guinea, and C, NE, E and southern Africa, Asia, Europe, Mediterranean, introduced in Australia and the Americas.