J. Bot. 69: 55 (1931).- Type: P. Beauv. 117, Nigeria (holo- G).
Panicum chaetophoron Roem.& Schult.., Linn. Syst. Veg.., ed. 9,2: 844 (1817);
Cyrtococcum setigerum Stapf, FTA: 747 (1920).- Type as for species.
Regional litterature: Fl. Gabon, 5: 76, tab. 12 (1962); FWTA: 426 (1972); Ghana grasses: 131, fig. 27 (1977); FTEA: 500 (1982); Gram. Togo: 189 (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 239, fig 51(1992); Fl. Bénin: 196, fig (2006); Poac. CI:282 (1995); Fl. Guinée: 454 (2009); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 124 (2015).
Description:
* Delicate lax decumbent perennial forest grass up to about 1 m. Culms straggling, geniculate, green, slender, branched near the base and rooting at the lower nodes. Leaves linear lanceolate, 8-11 cm long and 5-15 mm broad, tapering into a fine point, glabrous with slightly scabrid margins; base narrow fringed with fine long silvery hairs; ligule a short rounded membrane; sheath glabrous, the upper margin fringed with fine short hairs.
*Inflorescence an open spreading panicle of 12-30 cm long with long fine branches 3-15 cm, bearing terminal solitary spikelets; pedicels curly hair-like, 7-25 mm long, with hairs of 4-6 mm. The lower branches of the panicle partly enclosed in the upper leaf sheath.
* Spikelets obovate, gibbous, laterally compressed, 1.4-2 mm long, hispid, often purplish. Glumes different, membranous; the lower half as long as spikelet, acute; the upper as long as spikelet, gibbous. Lower lemma as upper glume, obtuse; upper lemma gibbous, elliptic, cristaceous, acuminate, brown, finely punctuated, the edges cover the crustaceous palea.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Uganda, DRC, Congo, Gabon and Tanzania, Angola.