Sp. Pl. Glum. 1: 274 (1854).- Type: Smeathman 85, Sierra Leone (holo- P).
Poa squamata Lam., Tab. Encycl. 1: 185 (1791);
Eragrostis halophila A. Chev., Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. nat. Paris, sér. 2,20: 473 (1948).- Type: Chevalier s.n., Senegal (iso- BR,P).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 391 (1972); Ghana grasses: 153 (1977); Gram. Togo: 218 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 455 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 123 (1992); Poac. CI: 138, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 284 (1998); Poac. Niger: 193, fig. (1999; Fl. Bénin: 207 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 167 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 460 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 88 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Rather coarse perennial bunchgrass, 0.3-1.2 m. Culms erect, hard and rigid, the nodes sometimes dark. Leaves stiff, 10-20 cm long and up to 6 mm wide, usually rolled, densely scabrid above narrowly linear, sometimes narrowly rolled, glabrous and scabrid on the upper surface and margins; base hairy in the axils, passing straight into the sheath; sheath glabrous; ligule a fringe of hairs. Roots fairly well developed.
* Inflorescence a large, elliptic, stiff panicle of 20-40 cm long with ascending fine scabrid branches; spikelets appressed, on fine scabrid pedicels.
* Spikelets linear, 5-25 mm long and 1.5-2.5 mm wide, greyish green, often purplish; rhachilla covered by the tighly placed lemmas, persistent, retaining paleas. Glumes long acuminate, scabrid on the keels, lower glume 1.5 mm long, upper glume 2.2 mm long. Lemmas acuminate, closely imbricate, their sides pressed flat against adjacent lemmas for almost their entire length, 2.5 mm long, keels prominent; paleas shorter, 1.5 mm, shortly ciliate on the keels. Anthers 2, 0.5 mm long. Caryopsis subspherical, 0.5 mm diameter.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Congo, Gabon.