J. Bot. 69: 54 (1931).- Type: Humboldt s.n., Colombia (holo- B).
Panicum zizanioides Kunth in Humb.& Bonpl., Nov. Gen. & Sp. Pl. 1: 100 (1931);
Echinochloa zizanoides (Kunth) Roberty, Bull. IFAN, sér. A 17: 67 (1955);
Panicum ogowense Franch., Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun 8: 344 (1895).- Type: Thollon 727, Congo (isosyn- K).
Regional litterature: Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 67 (1934); FI. Gabon 5: 22, tab. 35 (1962); FWTA: 435 (1972); Ghana grasses: 87 (1977); FTEA : 565 (1982); Gram. Togo: 130, fig (1983); Fl. Senegal 10: 43, fig 16 (1991, unpubl.); Gram. Cameroun: 241 (1992); Poac. CI: 350, fig. (1995); Fl. Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 210, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 175 (2006); Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 161 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 133 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 448 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 67 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 117 (2015).
Description:
* Lax, scrambling perennial. Culms branched, 0.6-1.2 m tall, slightly compressed, 1-2.5 mm wide, rooting at the lower nodes and sometimes with aerial roots. Leaves lanceolate, 4-15 cm long, 6-26 mm wide, tapering to a sharp tip; base rounded and contracted with obscure cross veins; ligule an eciliate membrane, 0.5 mm long; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence in a loose panicle with 2-8 slender glabrous racemes along a glabrous central axe of 15-25 cm long. Lower racemes up to 15 cm long; rhachis angular, the basal spikelets 2.5 cm apart. Spikelets ascending, in pairs, spikelets pedicelled. Pedicels linear, angular, unequal in length,1-3(-6) mm long.
* Spikelets oblong, 5.5-6.5 mm long, light green, sometimes lightly violet; callus glabrous, base truncate. Lower glume ovate, 0.5-0.8 length of spikelet, herbaceous, apex acute; upper glume ovate, as long as adjacent fertile lemma, apex laterally pinched. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, ovate, laterally pinched at apex; upper lemma elliptic, dorsally compressed, lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, coriaceous, pallid white, turning brownish, striate, margins involute, apex apiculate with a little green crest; tip of upper palea reflexed.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, South Sudan,
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Mozambique, Asia, Latin America.