Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 264 (1854).- Type : Hb. Linn., 87-33, India (holo- LINN)
SYNONYMS
Poa amabilis Linn., Sp. Pl. 68 (1753) ;
Eragrostis amabilis (Linnaeus) Wight & Arn., Cat. Indian Pl. 2: 105 (1834) ;
Poa tenella Linn., Sp. Pl. 69 (1753) ;
Eragrostis tenella (Linn.) P. Beauv. ex Roem. & Schult., Syst. Veg. 2: 75 (1817) ;
Eragrostis amabilis var. tenella (Linn.) A. Camus, in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-China 7: 557 (1922).
Regional litterature: FTEA: 206 (1970); FWTA: 386 (1972); Ghana grasses: 153 (1977) ; Gram. Togo: 218 (1983); Pl. Mauritanie: 284 (1998); Gram. Cameroun: 114 (1992); Poac. CI: 112, fig. (1995); Poac. Niger: 186, fig. (1999); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 137 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 460 (2009); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 71 (1999); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 167 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 80 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 129 (2015)
Description:
* Delicate slender straggling or loosely tufted annual of 6-40 cm high. Culms slender, ascending, with dark nodes. Leaves linear, 5-9 cm long and 2-5 mm broad, glabrous with smooth margins, stand away from the culm, base slightly narrowed passing straight into the sheath; ligule a narrow hyaline rim of 0.3 mm broad; sheath glabrous but a few white hairs up to 3 mm long on both sides of the ligule.
* Inflorescence a small open, pyramidal to elliptic panicle, light green, somewhat purplish, 2-14 cm long and 1-5 cm wide; branches up to 3.5 cm long, spreading, with tiny flattened spikelets, borne on hair-like branches and pedicels.
* Spikelets ovate-oblong, pale green to purplish, 1.5-2.5 mm long with 4-9 florets. Glumes with scabrid keels; lower glume ovate, 0.5-0.6 mm long; upper glume ovate, 0.7-1 mm long. Lemmas light green with green veins, ovate, 0.7-1 mm long, smooth to scaberulose, keels of palea with hairs usually shorter than the width of the floret. Anthers brownish, 2 mm long. Grain light brown, elliptical, flattened, 0.5 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, smooth.
Note: Eragrostis unioloides (Retz.) Nees ex Steud from Asia is sometimes considered as synonym. Grasses identified under that name need to be studied carefully.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Gabon and C, NE, E and southern Africa into tropical Asia.