Mém. Soc. Bot. Fr. 2,8: 218 (1912).- Type: Chevalier 9605, 9640, Chad (syn- P); Chevalier 9640, Massénia, CAR (syn- K,P).
Sporobolus scabriflorus Massey, Sudan grasses: 42 (1926).- Type: Schweinfurth 184 & 2379, Sudan (syn- K);
Sporobolus aequiglumis Stapf, Rev. Bot. Appl. 14: 11 (1934).- Type: Malawi.
Regional litterature: FWTA: 407 (1972); FTEA: 363 (1974); Ghana grasses: 240 (1977); Gram. Togo: 323 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 150 (1992); Poac. CI: 200, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 147, fig (1995); Fl. Bénin: 246 (2006); Pl. Mauritanie: 291 (1998); Pl. Burkina Faso: 115 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 148 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual bunchgrass, sometimes small, 7-60 cm high, the tussocks rather flattened. Culms simple or branched, erect to geniculately ascending, pale-green to yellowish. Leaves linear lanceolate, 3.5-10 cm long and 3-8 mm broad, glabrous with comb-like stiffly-hairy scabrid margins, base rounded with a white collar; ligule a narrow membrane fringed by hairs, 0.5 mm long; sheath glabrous and slightly compressed. Roots a fine dense fibrous mat.
* Inflorescence a delicate open pyramidal panicle, 4-10 cm long and 3.5-5 cm broad, with fine branches ascending to spreading, often with glandular spots with sticking sand grains, the lower extending horizontally from the main axis, at least the lower ones whorled, bearing large numbers of small spikelets.
* Spikelets obovate, 1-1.4 mm long, glabrous to scaberulous, pale grey to greenish grey. Lower glume a tiny ovate scale of up to 0.2 mm long or suppressed; upper glume oblong elliptic, as long as spikelet. Lemma oblong, similar to upper glume or slightly shorter. Anthers 2, 0.5-0.7 mm long. Caryopsis obovoid, 0.7-0.8 mm long and 0.5 mm broad.
Vernalular names: Gizin medevle (Guiziga, Seghieri 438).
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and Kenya.