Cat. Welw. 2: 209 (1899).- Type: Welwitsch 2660, Angola (holo- K, iso- LISU).
Sporobolus schweinfurthii Stapf, Kew Bull. 1908: 440 (1908).- Type: Schweinfurth 3971, Sudan, Bar el Ghazal (holo- K);
Sporobolus niamensis Mez, Fedde, Repert. 17: 299 (1921).- Type: Schweinfurth 3971, Sudan, Bar el Ghazal (holo- B).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 406 (1972); FTEA: 364 (1974); Ghana grasses: 241 (1977); Gram. Cameroun: 147 (1992); Poac. CI: 194, fig. (1995), Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 174, fig (1999); Fl. Bénin: 246 (2006); Fl. Guinée: 479 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 116 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 149 (2015).
Description:
* Erect perennial bunchgrass of 0.8-1.5 m tall; basal sheaths neither broad and papery nor horny. Culms green, slender. Leaves long linear, glabrous, 10-35 cm long and 3-6 mm broad with a slender filiform tip, scabrid margins with minute hairs, rolling on drying; base slightly rounded and hairy with a whitened collar; ligule a small fringe of hairs; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence an open to fairly dense linear panicle of 15-40 cm long with primary branches of 1.5-5 cm arranged in 10-20 pronounced whorls, spreading or ascending on a central axis; branches longer than the whorl interval. Spikelets attached from base to apex of the branches (or lower third free).
* Spikelets obovate, 2-3.5 mm long, glabrous, pale green to dark reddish black. Lower glume lanceolate 0.5-1.6 mm long, rarely almost suppressed; upper glume lanceolate-elliptic, as long as spikelet. Lemma lanceolate, similar to upper glume or slightly shorter. Anthers 3, 1.2-1.7 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 1.5-1.6 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Tanzania, and southern Africa.