Kew Bull. 4: 349 (1949).- Type: Hinds 16, Ghana (syn- K); Hinds 5000, Ghana (syn- K).
Chrysochloa annua C.E. Hubbard, Kew Bull. 12.1 (1957).- Type: Hinds 1948, Ghana (holo- K);
Chrysochloa caespitosa Clayton, Kew Bull 14: 239 (1960).- Type: Johnson 1081, Ghana (holo- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 402 (1972); FTEA: 327 (1974); Ghana grasses: 123, fig 20 (1977); Gram. Togo: 177 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 184, fig. 40(1992); Poac. CI: 174, fig. (1995) ; Poac. Niger: 274, fig. (1999); Fl. Zambesiaca 10,2: 238 (1999); Pl. Burkina Faso: 76 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013).
Description:
* Annual or perennial grass, usually shortly stoloniferous, prostrate and creeping and rooting at the nodes but sometimes tufted. Culms compressed at towards base, simple or branched, geniculate or erect, 0.1-0.7 m high. Leaves departing at a broadly angle from the sheath, linear with abruptly rounded tips, 2-10 cm long and 4-7 mm broad, folded and keeled, glabrous with a fine recessed midrib and smooth or slightly scabrid margins; base passing directly into sheath; ligule a short, white membrane; sheath glabrous, strongly compressed and keeled.
* Inflorescence terminal with 3-4 digitate, ascending racemes. Racemes slender and straight, silvery golden-green, one sided and 4-9 cm long; rhachis flattened. Spikelets packing broadside to the rhachis.
* Spikelets ovate, 3-4 mm long, yellow green, strongly compressed laterally, with one fertile floret. Glumes narrow; upper 3-4 mm long with a short awn point. Lemma 2.5-3.5 mm long with a short awn 1-2.5 mm long; upper floret reduced, 1.5-2 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad.
Distribution world-wide: DRC and Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia.