Fedde Rep.17: 145 (1921).- Type: Hildebrandt 1097, Tanzania, Zandibar (holo- BM, iso- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 411 (1972); FTEA: 395, 397, fig.106 (1974); Ghana grasses: 212 (1977); Gram. Togo: 289, fig. (1983); Poac. CI: 218, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 233 (2006).
Description:
* Small annual, 0.15-0.45 m tall. Culms geniculate ascending branching from a decumbent base. Leaves short broad, lanceolate, 2-2.5 cm long and 4-5 mm broad, expanding flat and glabrous with margins fringed with bristle-like hairs; base rounded, clasping the culm. ligule inconspicuous; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence a long lax reddish or purplish ‘bottle-brush’ spikes bearing well spaced spikelets, exerted from the uppermost sheath, 10-11 cm long. Spikelets distant from each other by several times their width, spreading horizontally.
* Spikelets 2-3.5 mm long. Base of callus drawn into a distinct stipitate callus of 0.3 mm long. Glumes irregularly puberulous to sparsely hispidulous on the flanks, the mid nerve of the upper glume, broad, green, slightly depressed, spinulose scabrid; awns slender, flexuous, 5-15 mm long. Lemma acute, 1 -nerved. Caryopsis flattened.
Distribution West Africa: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda and Somalia, E Africa.