Fl. Ind. Occid. 1: 200 (1797).- Type: Anon s.n., s.l. (lecto- LINN).
Chloris inflata Link, Enum. Pl. 1: 105 (1821).- Type: ?Hb. Link., USA (holo- US).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 400 (1972); FTEA: 345 (1974); Ghana grasses: 116 (1977); Gram. Togo: 174, fig (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 446 (1991); Gram. Cameroun : 177, fig 38 (1992) ; Poac. CI:172, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 168, fig (1995); Poac. Niger: 267, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin 191 (2006) ; Pl. Burkina Faso: 75 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 122 (2015).
Description:
* Straggling decumbent to erect occasionally stoloniferous branched annual or perennial bunchgrass, glaucous, 0.3-0.9 m high. Culms somewhat compressed, especially near the base, geniculate branched and rooting on the lower nodes. Leaves narrowly linear, up to 35 cm long and 2-5 mm broad, flat or more frequently partly folded, glabrous with scabrid margins; base sometimes hairy, passing straight into sheath; ligule a short pale ciliolate membrane; sheath glabrous, the basal ones markedly compressed.
* Inflorescence terminal with 5-19 purple digitate spikes. Spikes plumose, 4-8 cm long; spikelets fall when ripe leaving herringbone-like glumes and rachis. Broad spatheole that later enrolled the culm.
* Spikelets triangular, 3 florets each with three fine hair-like awns; floret callus rounded, ciliate. Lower glume 1.2-1.5 mm lon, acuteg; upper 1.7-2.5 mm long. Lower lemma elliptic in side view, 2.5-2,8 mm, hairy on the margins and back, awn 5-7 mm long; middle lemma flattened, up to 1-1,5 mm long with an awn of 2.5 -7 mm long; 3rd lemma with an awn 3-5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia and E Africa, Asia; introduced in Australia and the Americas.