Rev. Gram. 1: 258, t. 53 (1830).- Type: Roger s.n., Senegal (iso- K).
Schoenefeldia nutans Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 202 (1854).- Type: Leprieur s.n., Senegal (iso- L).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 402 (1972); Ghana grasses: 230, fig. 82 (1977); Gram. Togo: 308 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 453, fig (1991); Fl. Mauritania: 417, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 180, fig. 39 (1992); Poac. CI: 176, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 163, fig (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 289 (1998); Poac. Niger: 280, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 242, fig. (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 111 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 145 (2015).
Description:
* Branched tufted annual bunchgrass, 0.1-0.9 m high with. Culms slender geniculately ascending or erect, occasionally branched at the base, pale, yellow to green. Leaves long narrowly linear, 5-30 cm long and 2-3 mm broad, with a constriction about halfway up, flat and glabrous with scabrid margins; ligule a tiny ciliate membrane; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence of 1-4 (- 8) digitate slender racemes at the end of the central culm of 0.1-0.9 m long. Racemes 10-18 cm long with a flattened rhachis of 0.8 mm wide; spikelets densely 2-seriate on one side.
* Spikelet 3-5 mm long with one dark brown floret, without rhachilla-extension. Glumes more or less similar, laterally flattened and keeled, mucronate, 3-5 mm long, scabrid on the keel. Lemma 1.7-2.5 mm long, pubescent, dark gryish brown with a slender curved awn of 2-4 cm long, arising between lobes; callus obtus with straight white hairs. Anthers 2. Caryopse oblong, 5 mm long.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Gambia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Arabic Pensula, S Asia.