Enum. Hort. Berol. 92 (1809).-Type: Herb. Willd. 1654, St. Domingo (holo- B).
Panicum porranthum Steud. (1854), ), Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 42 (1853).- Type: Leprieur s.n., Senegal (holo- P);
Digitaria horizotalis var. porrhanta (Steudel) Henrard & Vaughan, Grasses of Mauritius and Rodriguez: 88 (1940); (porrantha in FTWA); Fl. Bénin: 199 (2006)
Digitaria reflexa Schumach., Beskr. Guin. Pl. 44 (1827).- Thonning 367, Ghana (holo- C).
Regional litterature: FI. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 2l,fig. 19 (1934); FI. Gabon 5: 47, tab. 7: 1-5 (1962); FWTA: 453 (1972); Ghana grasses: 137 (1977); FTEA: 453 (1982); Gram. Togo: 196 (1983); Fl. Mauritania: 449 (1991); Gram. Cameroun: 325 (1992); Poac. CI: 446, fig. (1995); Pl. Mauritanie: 301 (1998); Poac. Niger: 450, fig. (1999); Fl. Bénin: 199 (2006) Pl. Vasc. Guiné-Bissau: 165 (2006); Fl. Guinea Bissau: 136 (2008); Fl. Guinée: 456 (2009); Pl. Burkina Faso: 80 (2012).
Description:
* Annual, straggling and branched, creeping, decumbent or erect, rooting at nodes, up to 0.2-1 m. Culms terete to slightly compressed, weak. Leaves linear to linear lanceolate, 2-20 cm long, 2-14 mm wide, flat and finely hairy on both sides with distinct white midrib to ½ of its length, scabrid margins; base slightly narrowed, rounded, hairy with a purple collar; ligule pale eciliate membrane of 1 mm long; sheath glabrous, slightly compressed, partially keeled.
* Inflorescence large open and spreading, composed of 4-22 long flexible pale green horizontal racemes arranged on a common axis of up to 7.5 cm. Racemes 4-17 cm long; rachis narrowly winged, angular, glabrous on surface or with long scattered white hairs, scabrous on margins. Spikelet appressed, in pairs, all alike, packing lax with 0.5 their length apart.
* Spikelets elliptic, acute, 1.7-3 mm long. Lower glume absent or obscure, ovate, 0-0.15 mm long; upper glume lanceolate, 0.5-0.7 length of spikelet, 3 -veined, hairy between veins. Lower lemma elliptic, acute, as long as spikelet, 7 -veined with equidistant or unevenly spaced veins, puberulous or pubescent between veins, glabrous or ciliate on margins; upper lemma elliptic, 1.7-3 mm long, cartilaginous, thinner on margins, grey to dark brown, 3 -veined, margins flat covering most of palea, ciliate.
Distribution West Africa: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR.D
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Congo, Gabon and Burundi; introduced in many places, Americas.
Note: Annual with digitate racemes or verticellate with a common axis of up to 7.5 cm.