Consp. Fl. Afr. 5: 823 (1895).- Type: Lindley s.n., Sierra Leone (holo- LE).
Vilfa paniculatus Trin., Mém. Acad. Sci. Petersb., sér. 6,5 2: 67 (1840);
Sporobolus strictus Franch., Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun 8: 368 (1895).- Vanderyst 5628, DRC (syn- BR); Flamigni 328, DRC (syn- BR) ;
Sporobolus patulus Hack., Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 52: 58 (1902).- Type: Hildebrandt 3996, Imerina, Madagascar (syn- ); Hens 297, Goma, Congo (syn- L);
Sporobolus regularis Mez, Fedde Rep. 17: 299 (1921).- Type : Ledermann 5008, 4919, Garoua, Cameroon (syn - ) ;
Sporobolus myxosperma Stapf ex Hutch. & Dalz., FWTA, ed 1: 527 (1936).- Type: Vogel s.n., Nigeria (holo- K);
Sporobolus polycyclus Berhaut, Fl. Senegal: 253 (1954).- Type: Senegal..
Regional litterature: FWTA: 407 (1972); Poac. CI: 198, fig. (1995); Ghana grasses: 240 (1977); FTEA: 361 (1974); Gram. Togo: 323 (1983); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 471 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 150, fig. 31 (1992); Poac. CI: 198, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 291 (1998); Fl Zambesiaca 10,2: 1711 (1999); Fl. Guinée: 479 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 115 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Annual bunchgrass of 0.1-0.75 m, sometimes solitary culms. Culms erect, slender. Leaves linear, 2-18 cm long and 3-7 mm broad, glabrous with distinctive comb-like stiffly-hairy scabrid margins tending to roll inwards; base slightly rounded with a white collar; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence a lanceolate panicle of 3-22 cm long, with fine horizontal to ascending branches arranged in up to12 distinct whorls on the central axis, reddish to dark purplish; branches up to 4 cm long with 4-20 spikelets on each branch.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 1-2.2 mm long, dark red, glabrous to scaberulose. Lower glume lanceolate, acute to acuminate, 0.4-1.3 mm long; upper glume ovate-elliptic, as long as spikelet. Lemma ovate, similar to upper glume, slightly shorter. Anthers 3, 0.2-0.8 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, distinctly laterally flattened, 0.8-1.4 mm long.
Note: Polymorphic species, in the forest the form patulus Hack., larger and more robust, lanceolate leaves up to 20 cm long and 8 mm wide, with clearly pectinate ciliate margins, but insufficient different for specific status (Zon, 1992).
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: Uganda, DRC, Gabon and C, E and southern Africa.