Kew Bull. 20: 271 (1966).- Type: Rose Innes 30767, Ghana (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 389 (1972); Ghana grasses: 151 (1977); Poicelot, Poac. CI: 124, fig. (1995); Fl. Guinée: 459 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 87 (2012).
Description:
* Loosely tufted perennial bunchgrass, up to 1.5 m tall. Culms stout with contracted dark nodes. Leaves long-linear, 20-35 cm long and 5-6 mm large, tending to roll inwards, glabrous, finely striated on the upper and strongly on the lower surface, with scabrid margins; base barely rounded or passing directly into the sheath; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous with slightly hairy shoulders. Roots coarse.
* Inflorescence a stiffly spreading panicle of 30-40 cm long; branches 12-20 cm long with distant spikelets, the upper half of the main axis and branches of the panicle scabrid; pedicels up to 16 mm long.
* Spikelets linear, reddish with the lower 2-5 florets barren, smaller in size and the palea absent or reduced, linear, 9-25 mm long and 2.5-4 mm wide; rachilla breaking above the sterile lemmas and the upper part falling entire at maturity. Glumes lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm long. Lemma oblong or ovate, 3.0-3.5 mm long (the lower 3-4 ones shorter), membranous and acuminate, giving the spikelet a dented aspect.Anthers 2-3. Caryopsis 0.6 mm long.
Distribution West Africa and world-wide: Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana.