Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 302 (1867).- Type: Figari, Sudan (holo- FI).
Loudetia superba De Not., Ind. Sem.Hort. Genuensis 24 (1852);
Tristachya gigantea Stapf, Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1897: 295 (1897).- Type: Schweinfurth 2260, Sudan (iso- K).
Regional litterature: FTA, 10:47 (1937); FWTA: 413 (1972); Ghana grasses: 251, fig. 96 (1977); FTEA: 422 (1982); Gram. Cameroun: 662, fig. 77 (1992); Fl. Bénin: (2006); Poac. CI: 222, fig. (1995); Pl. Burkina Faso: 118 (2012); Fl. Chad (2013); Pl. Sudan & S Sudan: 151 (2015).
Description:
* Stout simple perennial bunchgrass, up to 2.5 m tall. Culms erect, coarse and shortly rhizomatous with conspicuously swollen bases enclosed by silky-hairy sheath bases. Leaves coarse, long linear, 30-60 cm long, 5-12 mm wide, glaucous, glabrous, with a distinct pale midrib and slightly scabrid margins tending to roll inwards, the base narrowed, sparsely hairy and barely rounded or passing straight into the sheath; ligule membranous rim of hairs, sometimes densely hairy behind; sheath glabrous, the basal ones covered with fine silky white hairs. Roots stout and coarse.
* Inflorescence a contracted linear panicle 20-60 cm long; branches glabrous or villous. Spikelets in threes, pedicelled. Rhachis glabrous or villous. Pedicels filiform, unequal 2-60 mm long.
* Spikelets lanceolate, brown with yellow-green nerves, 25-35 mm long; callus elongated, 3-3.5 mm long, pungent, rufous or white pubescent. Glumes dissimilar, chartaceous, acute, dark brown exceeding apex of florets; lower glume elliptic, half as long as spikelet, glabrous, or pilose (rarely); upper glume lanceolate, glabrous. Lower lemma similar to upper glume, lanceolate; upper lemma oblong, white, 14-18 mm long, coriaceous, pubescent, 2 -fid with lanceolate lobes of 4 mm long and with geniculate awn, 4-12 cm long, subterete below, from the sinus.
Distribution West Africa: Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.
Distribution world-wide: DRC, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and southern Africa.