in Elliott, J. Bot. Soc. 30: 99 (1894).- Type: Elliot 4114, Sierra Leone (holo- K, iso- BM).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 387 (1972); Ghana grasses: 152 (1977); Gram. Togo: 218 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 126, fig 27 (1992); Poac. CI: 120, fig. (1995); Fl. Guinée: 460 (2009).
Description:
* Sparingly branched, loosely tufted annual bunchgrass, glandular, 0.2-1 m high. Culms erect or ascending with purple nodes. Leaves rising mostly from the culms, long linear, flat or rolled, 2-20 cm long and 2-7 mm wide, long hairs at the underside, with a palpable constriction about 1/3 from the tip, margins scabrid; base barely rounded, slightly hairy; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheath with a line of tubercle based hairs, slightly hairy on the shoulders, otherwise glabrous.
* Inflorescence a delicate oblong panicle of 10-18 cm long and 4-8 cm wide. Branches ascending, up to 8 cm long, glandular; spikelets borne on fine scabrid glandular hair-like pedicels. Glands tubular with purple rims.
* Spikelets flattened, ovate, purplish, 3-8 mm long and 3-4 mm wide with diminished florets at the top; rhachilla breaking up at maturity, shedding paleas. Glumes membranous, hairy, acute, 1.5-2 mm long. Lemma ovate, thinly chartaceous, obtuse to acute, 2-2.5 mm long, 3-nerved, margins with white tubercle-based hairs and a few glands on the nerves; palea keels scaberulous. Anthers 3, 0.7-0.8 mm long. Caryopsis oblong, 0.7-0.8 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution worldwide: DRC, Congo and Gabon.