Fl. Maharashtra 6A: 145 (2014).- Type:
Helopus barbatus Trin., in Sprengel, Neue Entd. 2: 49 (1821);
Panicum fatmense Hochst. & Steud. in Schimper, It. Un., 806 (1837).- Type: Schimper 806, Saoudi Arabia (iso- BM,K,L,M,TUB);
Eriochloa fatmensis (Hochst. & Steud.) Clayton, Kew Bull., 30: 108 (1975);
Panicum annulatum A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 370 (1851).- Type: Kotschy 382, Sudan, Arasch-Cool (isosyn- K); Schimper 1748, Ethiopia (isosyn- K);
Helopus nubicus Steud., Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 100 (1854).- Type: Kotschy 382, Sudan, Arasch Cool (iso- L,M);
Eriochloa nubica (Steud.) Thell., Viert. Nat. Ges. Zürich 64: 697 (1919).- Type: Kotschy 382, Sudan, Arasch C);
Eriochloa procera (Retz.) Hubb., Misc. Inform. 256 (1930).- Type:
Regional litterature: Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 77 (1934); FWTA: 437 (1972); Ghana grasses: 154, fig. 38 (1977); FTEA: 571, fig (1982); Gram. Togo: 220 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 430, fig (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 278, fig. 57 (1992); Ethiopia & Eritrea 7: 218, fig (1995); PL. Mauritanie: 298 (1998); Poac. Niger: 397, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 207 (2006); Pl. Burkina Faso: 89 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 131 (2015).
Description:
* Tufted annual, soft leafy scantily branched and densely tufted, up to 0.6 m high but sometimes more robust branched and stoloniferous to decumbent, rooting at the nodes. Culms glabrous. Leaves long narrow linear, up to 16 cm long and 4 mm broad, with slightly scabrid margins; base slightly rounded and passing straight into the sheath; ligule reduced to a line of short hairs; sheath glabrous, finely nerved. Roots quite well developed.
* Inflorescence slender erect culms bearing up to 8 one-sided racemes along a central axe of 3-15 cm. Racemes 2-4 cm each with two rows of fairly plump glabrous green spikelets crowded on the underside.
* Spikelets ovate lanceolate, mucronate to subulate, 3-5 mm long, slightly silky. Lower glumes reduced leaving a tiny bead-like swelling of 0.2 mm at the base; upper glume attenuate, appressed pilose 2.5-5 mm, with awn-point of 1 mm. Lower lemma without palea; upper lemma elliptic, obtuse, white, granular, 2.5-3.5 mm long, with a mucro of 0.6-1 mm.
Distribution West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC and C, NE, E and southern Africa into Arabia; introduced in S and E Asia.