Ess. Agrost. 12, 154, 167 (1812).- Type: Salzmann s.n., Brasil (syn- MO); Swartz OP s.n., Jamaica (iso- S, BM)
Milium compressum Sw., Prod. Veg. Ind. Occ. 24 (1788);
Axonopus commpressus ssp. brevipedunculatus Gledhill, Phyton (Horn) 12: 413 (1962).- Type Gledhill 54, Sierra Leone (iso- K);
Axonopus brevipedunculatus (Gledhill) Gledhill, Bol. Soc. Brot. 40: 127 (1966).
Regional litterature:
FI. Agr. Congo Belge 2: 119, fig. 30 (1934; FWTA: 448 (1972); Ghana grasses: 101, fig. 10 (1977); FTEA: 613 (1982); Gram. Togo: 156, fig. (1983); Gram. Cameroun: 286, fig. 62 (1992); Poac. CI: 414, fig. (1995); Fl. Bénin: 184 (2006); Pl. Vasc, Guiné-Bissau: 162 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 133 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 451 (2009);
Description:
* Prostate mat-forming perennial, spreading rapidly from vigorous stolons, rooting at the nodes and sending up erect geniculate culms 0.2-0.6 m long. Culms compressed towards the base; the nodes covered with fine short hairs, stolons often purplish. Leaves linear, 3-20 cm long, 3-12 mm wide, flat or partially folded and glabrous with scabrid margins; base rounded, apex obtuse or abruptly acute; ligule a denticulate, shortly ciliate membrane; sheath glabrous, strongly compressed and keeled, especially the interleaved basal ones. Roots fairly fine.
* Inflorescence slender, 3-10 cm long, usually 3 including the 2 terminal racemes. Racemes 5-10 cm long; rachis angular, glabrous. Spikelets closely appressed to the rachis in two rows.
* Spikelets lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 2-2.4 mm long. Lower glume absent or obscure; upper glumes with lines of hairs between the nerves. Lower lemma as upper glume; upper lemma ob-ovate, 1.5-2 mm long, indurate, pallid, margins involute, apex obtuse, pubescent, bearing a short tuft of hairs of 0.2 mm long at the apex; palea as long as lemma.
Distribution West Africa: Introduced in Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: Americas; introduced in Uganda, DRC, Congo, Gabon and Tanzania ,C and southern Africa and most tropical countries.