Fedde Rep.17: 295 (1921).- Type: McGregor 140, Nigeria (holo- ?B, iso- K,P)
Sporobolus vogelii Stapf ex A. Chev., Rev. Bull.. Appl. Agric. Trop. 14 : 116 (1934).- Type : Dawodu 140, Lagos, Nigeria (lecto- P) ;
Sporobolus capillaris A. Chev., Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. II20: 468 (1948) nom. illeg.- Type: Tisserant 2071, Gerelenji, CAR (holo- P).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 410 (1972); FTEA: 385 (1974); Ghana grasses: 241 (1977); Gram. Togo: 323 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 157 (1992); Poac. CI: 220, fig. (1995; Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 156 (1995); Fl. Bénin: 246 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 175 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 143 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 479 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 115 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 148 (2015).
Description:
* Delicate annual bunchgrass 15-40 cm high. Culms erect, slender. Leaves often only basal, linear, seldom exceeding 6 cm long, flat and up to 3 mm broad but frequently stiff, rolled and filiform, glabrous with slightly scabrid margins, base barely rounded with a purplish, sometimes white collar; ligule small ciliated membrane; sheath glabrous, sometimes with a fringe of hairs on the shoulders, sometimes purplish. Roots fine, fibrous.
* Inflorescence an open spreading pinkish-purple panicle of 3-18 cm long and 6-8 cm wideof extremely fine spreading filiform branches of up to 6 cm long scattered along the central axis, bearing numerous small terminal spikelets on long pedicels. The panicle is often so fine as to appear a pink mist.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 0.8-1.3 mm long, pink. Lower glume reduced to a small scale, 0.1-0.2 mm long; upper glume ovate-oblong, 0.4-0.8 mm long, cuspidate-acuminate, the central nerve excurrent. Lemma ovate, 1.3 mm long, obtuse to acute, with a slightly shorter palea. Anthers 3, 0.5-0.6 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, flattened, with a small stipe on top, 0.6-0.8 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and C Africa and Tanzania.