Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Nat. Paris 30: 106 (1924).- Type: Scott Elliot 1909, Madagascar, L. Itasy (holo- W, iso- K).
Panicum atrofuscum Hack., J. Linn. Soc. 29: 63 (1891);
Digitaria seminuda Stapf, FTA 9: 446 (1919).- Type : Thomas 1516, Sierra Leone Mabum (lecto- K);
Digitaria masambaensis Vanderyst, Bull. Agric. Congo Belge 16 : 660 (1925).- Type: Vanderyst 6007, DRC (syn- K).
Regional litterature: FWTA: 452 (1972) ; Ghana grasses: 134 (1977); FTEA: 628 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 315 (1992); Poac. CI: 428, fig. (1995); Fl. Guinée: 455 (2009).
Description:
* Perennial, rather lax simple and rambling or occasionally branched erect bunchgrass to 0.9 m; culms slender. Leaves long linear with very fine point 15-45 cm long, 2-11 mm wide, flat and glabrous with scabrid margins, base directly into sheath; ligule short brownish eciliate membrane; sheath glabrous.
* Inflorescence on slender culms bearing 3 -10 long slender erect or ascending subdigitate unilateral racemes. Racemes 8-22 cm long arranged on a common axis (lower often solitary and distinct); rachis broadly winged with rounded midrib. Spikelets densely crowded on one side, in threes, or 3-5 clustered at each node; pedicels glabrous.
* Spikelets greenish, elliptic 1.8-2.7 mm long. Lower glume clasping, 0.1-0.2 mm long; upper glume lanceolate acute, 0.3-0.6 length of spikelet, 3 -veined, glabrous or minutely pubescent with capitate hairs. Lower lemma elliptic acute, as long as spikelet, 7 -veined with equidistant veins, glabrous or minutely pubescent with capitate hairs; upper lemma elliptic acute, 1.8-2.7 mm long, cartilaginous, thinner on margins, dark brown or black.
Distribution West Africa: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.
Distribution world-wide: C Africa, Tanzania, Zambia.