Opusc., 75 (1831).- Type: Desvaux s.n., tropical America (holo- P).
Microchloa abyssinica. Hochst. ex A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 404 (1850).- Type : Schimper 321, Ethiopia (syn- K,W).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 403 (1972); FTEA : 314 (1974) ; Ghana grasses: 187 (1977); Gram. Togo: 255 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 184 , fig. 40 (1992); Poac. CI: 186, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 174, fig (1995); Fl. Bénin: 219, fig. (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 97 (2012); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 137 (2015).
Description:
* Small straggling or tufted perennial bunchgrass, 0.1-0.3 m high; base of the tussock enveloped with fibrous remains of leaf sheaths. Culms erect, weak, with 1-4 nodes. Leaves generally at the base, 1-8 cm long; ligule reduced to a line of short hairs; sheaths glabrous.
* Inflorescence a slender long curved terminal raceme 10-25 cm long with a rachis 0.8-1.2 mm broad. Spikelets almost sessile.
* Spikelets lanceolate, 2-4 mm long, disarticulating above the glumes. Glumes lanceolate, as long as spikelet. Lemma lanceolate with hairs of I mm long along the margins. Caryopsis cylindrical, 1.5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and NE, E and southern Africa, Asia and Latin America.