Rev. Gram. 2: 425 (1832).- Type: Gay s.n., Senegal (holo- B).
Sporobolus assakae Caball., Bol. Real. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 36: 148 (1936).- Type: Caballero s.n., Western Sahara (holo- M);
Sporobolus senegalensis Chiov., Pl. Nov. Minus Not. Aeth. 26 (1928).- Type: Roussillon s.n., Senegal (holo- P)..
Regional litterature: FWTA: 408 (1972); Ghana grasses: 241 (1977); Gram. Togo: 324 (1983); Fl. Mauritanie 2: 472, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 153 (1992); Pl. Mauritanie: 291 (1998); Poac. Niger: 297, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 246 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 175 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 143 (2008); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Robust rhizomatous, stoloniferous, coarsely tufted, glaucous perennial bunchgrass of 0.2-0.9 m high. Culms hard, erect or ascending, brittle and branched, usually encased in leaf sheaths. Leaves long linear, 10-60 cm long and 2-7 mm broad, usually rolled but sometimes expanded and flat, glabrous, with an indistinct pale midrib and finely striated throughout, with two palpable constrictions at intervals of 1/3 of its length; margins scabrid; base somewhat rounded and hairy with a white collar; ligule a fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous, somewhat compressed, bleaching white. Roots coarse and strong.
* Inflorescence a narrow, dense, spike-like panicle of 10-40 cm long and 1-4 cm wide with sometimes appressed ascending branches of 1-6 cm long scattered closely up the central axis; spikelets scattered from the base to apex of the primary branches.
* Spikelets 2.5-3 mm long, grey-green or purple-tinged. Glumes membranous, lanceolate, acute, the lower glume from 1.5 mm to almost as long as spikelet; upper glume and lemma ovate, as long as spikelet; palea keels scabrid. Anthers 3, 1 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 1 mm long.
Vernacular names: bam (Balanta); colaco (Felupe).
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Western Sahara, DRC, Gabon, C Africa.