Rév. Gram 1: 67 (1829).- Type: Anon. s.n. LINN HL84-30, s.l. (lecto- LINN).
Agrostis virginica Linn., Sp. Pl. 63 (1753);
Agrostis congener Schumach., Beskr. Guin. Pl.: 46 (1827).- Type: Thonning 343, Ghana (holo- C);
Sporobolus confertus J.A.Schmidt, Beitr. Fl. Cap. Verd. Ins. 142 (1852).- Type: Schmidt s.n., Sal, Cape Verde (iso- S);
Sporobolus minutus ssp confertus (J.A. Schmidt) Lobin, N. Kilian & Leyens, Willdenowia 25: 192 (1995).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 408 (1972); FTEA: 370 (1974); Ghana grasses: 243(1977); Gram. Togo: 327 (1983); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 472, fig, (1991); Poac. CI: 202 , fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 292 (1998); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 181 (1999); Fl. Bénin: 247 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 175 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 143 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 479 (2009).
Description: .
* Wiry perennial 0.3-0.6 m high, matforming, rising from the extensive creeping, rooted stolons or rhizomes, of up to 1.6 m long. Culms erect, short, well branched, 1-2 mm diameter. Leaves glaucous up to 2-10 cm long, numerous, produced from nearly all the many nodes and arranged in two distinct rows up the culms, linear and tapering into a stiff sharp point; usually rolled but occasionally expanded flat, glabrous and finely striated, with scabrid margins; base passing direct into sheath; ligule barely visible; sheath glabrous, sometimes with hairy margins.
* Inflorescence a short dense spike-like panicle 5-11 cm long and 5-8 mm wide with short primary branches 5-15 mm, pressed and long attached to a central axis. Spikelets clustered closely along the whole length of the primary branches.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 1.7-2.2 mm long, grey-green. Lower glume acute, 1.2-2 mm long; upper glume ovate elliptic, as long as spikelet. Lemma ovate, slightly shorter than spikelet. Caryopsis subglobular, 0.7 mm long.
Vernacular names: toglo awuna (Akpabla 835); pinkofuo (Fanti, Irvine 1464).
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin.
World-wide: DRC and Congo, E and southern Africa, Asia to Australia, Americas.